The Displaced Ticks
by Os the reborn
Summary: Summary: A fairly small company of mercenaries from earth have somehow encountered a portal that dropped them right into an area of land forsaken by the nations due to the extremely high concentration of Grimm that reside there. Immediately set upon by Grimm, They fight to survive, hoping beyond hope that they can be rescued before they die. NOW RATED M FOR VIOLENCE AND LANGUAGE
1. Chapter 1

**Well this is awkward.**

 **I find myself starting yet another story. Yet another RWBY story, even. Without feedback on my other RWBY story, I am not sure how to continue with it. However, I am starting this new story, and I am making it my longest ever hopefully. This story came to me instantly after listening to the Sabaton song The Lost Battalion. Immediately, this idea struck me with a motivation I rarely feel. If you haven't heard the song, IMMEDIATELY GO FIND IT AND LISTEN. It's a good song about a true story of courage and stubbornness that happened during WWI, so go on, listen to it first. So.**

 **I do not own Rwby or any other things I may reference, so the only thing of mine are the poor poor schmucks in my little company of soldiers, and the ridiculous weapons they carry.**

Chapter one: A Hostile Reception

"Well Boys, I suppose we can all have a drink. You have really earned it!"

This announcement was met by cheers all around from the twenty young men surrounding the twenty-first, a grizzled man, nicknamed Leonidas. This nickname had come around as several times with this very crew of twenty men, he had held off much larger forces. In fact, the only thing that differentiated this Leonidas from the spartan hero was the fact that this Leonidas brought all of his men back alive. He was really proud of his men, having just finished a particularly difficult client's request. This particular client wanted to stage a rebellion, so he had sent for Leonidas's crew, named "Ticks" for their legacy of being uncrushable in both spirit and defense. As a result, the instigator of the rebellion sent Leonidas to defend a specific city, but it had ended up resulting in a complete overthrow of the opposing forces, as they kept sending more and more companies of soldiers to attack the Ticks, only to be wiped out. They had been paid a massively substantial amount from the extremely grateful revolutionaries, and were returning back to the small Island in the Caribbean that they had made their home base. The prospect of a nice bed and plenty of booze when they returned home put all of the men in a great mood.

Currently they were traveling by boat, the beautiful vessel _Molly Brown_ , their private vessel for when naval attacks were required. It was not massive, no bigger than 250 feet, half the size of most naval destroyers. Yet what it lacked in size it made up for in many ways. It had a powerful array of cannons on it, a few missile systems, and depth charges. The radar and other detection software were some of the most advanced, several improvements having been installed by their resident tech expert. It could be automatically driven by the AI system said Tech genius had made, or it could be manually piloted. It was a fast vessel, easily outpacing almost every naval weapon bearing ship produced. The crew took a great amount of pride in _Molly_ , which was named after the survivor of the Titanic sinking, the "Unsinkable" woman. The vessel had pulled them through many a tough fight out at sea, and was one of the most treasured vehicles they owned. Stored in the hull of the ship was _Flamma_ , their heavily modified Tank. This was named after the Roman Gladiator who had fought in the arenas for thirteen years and refused his freedom on four separate occasions in preference of fighting on. Not a single person other than the tech genius knew how it worked, but five of the men knew how to perfectly operate it. _Flamma_ had helped them through even more fights than _Molly_ had, which caused the driver to treat it as if it were his child.

As they were making a good distance across the ocean back to their base, Leonidas looked around at his twenty soldiers. When they were originally added to the group, instead of names, they all just received a number in their own language as their name. They had grown so used to this style of nomenclature that they had almost forgotten their real names.

Eins was Leonidas's right hand man and the first member of the Ticks, hailing from germany. Ni was his left hand man, hailing from Japan. He was extremely proficient in melee combat. Three was the resident Tech expert, coming from America. Tessera, Pente, and Exi came from Greece and were a set of triplets that had been left orphaned in a battle the Ticks were sent to clean up after. Sem was the Russian who was their demolitions expert. Otto and Nove were two best friends from Italy who joined the Ticks after witnessing them withstand an onslaught of tanks in a nasty skirmish. Together with the three Greeks, they all crewed _Flamma_. Ten was a british soldier, who had left his country in pursuit of a more profitable venture. Aon-deug, Dha-dheug, Tri-deug, and Ceithir-deug were four from the scottish highlands. They were hearty specimens, capable and strong. They made up the brute squad. Shiwu was the chinese master of stealth, but had a troubled, tortured past. Seize was the french master of diplomacy in their little group. Sautjan was an Icelandic monster of a man, Huge in muscle, bigger in heart. Muoi Tam was the vietnamese scout of their contingent. He was rather short, which made his deep friendship with Sautjan rather comedic, yet heartwarming. Finally, Neunzehn and Zwanzig were Eins's two sons who wanted to follow their dad to victory after their mother passed away. Eins was the oldest of the group at Forty-two, and Leonidas was the second oldest at Thirty-nine. The two youngest were Neunzehn and Zwanzig, who were, oddly enough, nineteen and twenty years old respectively. Despite their varied backgrounds and nationalities, they all got along really well, becoming almost like a family.

Currently the sun was shining, everyone was sitting on the decks with beer, even the two younger ones (much to Eins's displeasure). There was no clouds, no troubles, clear and calm waters all around, and a steady journey back home. Sautjan and Muoi Tam sat with each other, laughing and joking. Shiwu watched quietly from the edges, a bit antisocial. That is, until Aon- and Tri-deug plopped down next to him and started telling really bad jokes, to which he had to groan and sigh, to Ni's never ending entertainment. Three was tinkering around with some explosives Sem had brought from down below. Ten was playing cards with Dha- and Ceithir-deug, with Seize quietly cursing in french after having his last poker chips swept into Ten's growing pile. Pente was napping, his head in Tessera's lap, who was napping with his head in Exi's lap, leaving Exi to nap while sitting back to back with Otto. Nove was looking at pictures of himself with _Flamma_ , eagerly trying to show Eins like a proud parent, as Eins sighed at the fact that he had actually been the one who had taken the pictures for Nove. Neunzehn and Zwanzig were playing horseshoes, creating an awful clatter on the metal deck. All were completely oblivious to the nightmare that lay ahead in their future.

All of a sudden, Leonidas hopped on the comm system and shouted at the men.

"BOYS! GET BELOW DECK AND STRAP IN! THREE, GET YOUR ASS UP HERE!"

They all immediately jumped into action, rushing around. They packed things away, they tied stuff down, then all promptly retreated to the inside. Meanwhile, Three immediately rushed up, wondering what could have sent Leonidas into such a frenzy. The answer became quite clear from the bridge.

Now, Leonidas had seen strange things before. Even more so when Three joined the crew. He thought things couldn't get weirder after Three had teamed up with the Greek triplets (Who were definitely on something at the time) to create some insanely weird weapons. Yet what he was seeing easily overshadowed anything prior.

"Three, What in the holy fuck am I looking at?"

Oddly enough, Three didn't have an answer. He was staring, in shock and awe of the sight in front of him. He had never encountered anything like it.

A portal.

At least, that seemed to be the best way to describe the swirling purple oval in front of them. The strange part was that the ship automatically turned towards it. The manual controls wouldn't work, the AI couldn't change the ship's course, despite trying several times over. In fact, the dials indicated that they were traveling faster towards the mysterious object. Three cleared his throat.

"Sir, it appears to be a portal… nothing like this has ever been seen, noted, investigated, reported, or even tried. We are dealing with an unknown force here, one never before seen. Perhaps we should just go with it… there's no knowing what it could lead to, It appears intangible, and it seems we can not escape this. I recommend buckling in, and seeing where this takes us. We will be taking a great risk with this, but we must persist and see what there is on the other side…"

Leonidas sighed and strapped himself in. "Three, If this drops us in space, I am going to kill you before we all die."

With that, Three strapped in as well and they looked directly at the portal as it grew closer and closer, before swallowing them up and disappearing. And just like that, the Ticks disappeared from the face of the Earth. Their time on Earth was up.

But a new story for them had begun.

The journey through the portal was instantaneous. One second, purple was engulfing the ship, the next, the ship was sitting on dry land with a pillar of purple light shooting straight up. The Pillar was visible for miles upon miles. As soon as their vision cleared, Leonidas and Three immediately shut down all engines, so that the ship would not destroy itself in trying to drive through ground. Then the two men looked at each other and had a tremendous shock.

"Leonidas…"

"Three…

""Why are we teenagers again?""

They could hear the shouts of confusion and shock from the rest of the crew as they came to similar realizations. Some were ecstatic, some were terrified of this " black magic" as the Deugs were calling it, while Eins was staring at his two sons, his sons staring back at him. No one knew what the hell was going on, as none of them had seen the portal before they had gone inside. Leonidas's voice carried into the room where they all were through the PA system.

"Boys... I am going to be straight with you all… We don't appear to be on earth anymore. Not only that, but you guys might have noticed we have all reverted in age. What I had seen was a strange purple portal, which we could not escape from. Then we were here. I advise you to keep a cool head. I picked you men because you could keep calm in any situation, and I expect this to be no different from anything else. Meet me up on the deck of the ship boys, we have a lot to do right now."

Message delivered, Leonidas looked at Three, who looked back at him. Then together they looked up at the night sky.

Right at the shattered moon that hung above them.

Headmaster Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch were looking at the mysterious purple pillar of light out in the distance. Ozpin took a sip from his coffee, before counting out loud from five. The instant he had hit zero, he received a call on his scroll, from General Ironwood. He opened it up and stood to face the image of James. "I expected you to call…"

The general did not react at all. "Ozpin, I trust you can see the light…"

Ozpin nodded.

"Well, seeing as we are closer than you, we can pinpoint the location it is coming from," Ironwood continued. "It is right… in the middle of the forsaken lands…" He said with a sigh.

Ozpin sighed as well. "Well that means that investigating this would be nearly impossible. Do you have a possible visual on what could cause that light?" he questioned the military man. Perhaps if it was worth investigating, he could put together several teams of hunters to go in and extract whatever it was from the forsaken lands.

The forsaken lands… it left a foul taste in Ozpin, no, _any_ hunter or huntress worth their salt's mouth. The dreaded area of land where it was rumored the ferocious creatures of Grimm had originated from. Whether it was true or not, it was still a terrifically dangerous place. Decades ago, some foolhardy explorers believed that they could colonise the edge of the land. However, the instant they had landed, they were beset with a siege of grimm from land and sky that overwhelmed the colonists after three hours of fighting. Since then, no further attempts were tried. Rumors abounded, but with an unexplored landmass, there was not much they could determine was true. Only the stupid or the suicidal ever tried to go there, only to promptly be eviscerated, mauled, pounded, impaled, and promptly devoured. Using high altitude Bullheads, they were able to see the general shape of the island, and even were able to get inland a decent way by air normally, until a huge swarm of nevermores would force them to turn around or die.

Ozpin was pulled out of his thoughts by general Ironwood's response. "Using experimental new technology from atlas, we are able to actually see the source of the light, but it is not easy to make out…" a picture flashed up on the screen of a weird boat shaped object that seemed to sit directly under the light pillar. The image was fuzzy as even now it was being sharpened by the systems running in atlas. As it became clearer and clearer, both men's eyes widened. It was a boat. Seemed militaristic as well. As the image slowly grew clearer, Ozpin noticed something.

"James, can you please zoom in on the deck of the ship?" He said, noting a little blotch on the deck of what was now clearly a small battleship. James nodded and zoomed in. As the image began clearing, Ozpin's eyebrow raised as Ironwood swore quietly under his breath.

"What do you think James, should we immediately send out an army?" Ozpin said, unable to believe his eyes. James shook his head. "An army is not worth saving twentyone teenagers, not even to get that boat. I'm sorry Ozpin, but it is a lost cause to try and rescue these kids."

Ozpin's countenance hardened, something that Ironwood noticed immediately. He grimaced, knowing what was coming. "No Ozpin. I said no."

Ozpin sighed. "They look like soldiers. Would you leave your soldiers to die in a place such as that? To foes such as that?"

Now it was Ironwood's turn to sigh. "Ozpin. As much as I hate it, we can not risk hundreds, thousands of soldiers just to simply save these teens. Besides, isn't it suspicious that all of a sudden, we have a boat in the middle of a landmass with no rivers, twenty-one mysterious teenagers on it, with a purple pillar of light over them?"

"However, I can not shake the feeling that they are not of Remnant and have no idea where they are or what they are in the middle of. Besides, couldn't that pillar be a sign of distress, or something bigger? I feel that we need to bring these teens in and question them. James, if you won't send the atlas military, I am going to send several teams of hunters and huntresses in there to rescue them."

"What has gotten into you Ozpin?" Ironwood said, looking at him in confusion, the same with Glynda, who had been sitting out of the conversation this entire time. "You have never been willing to sacrifice your own people you taught for any purpose!"

Ozpin pinched the bridge of his nose. "I...I do not know. Please james, trust me. There is this feeling I'm getting that says that this is highly important to the security of remnant as a whole. I beg you James, do not delay. Every extra minute is another minute they could die in."

James ignored the twinge he felt at the back of his neck. "..." He hung his head in defeat. "I am going to send some soldiers to the location to try and recover whatever they can, on a few conditions. One, that you will pay compensation for the families that will inevitably lose a member in this suicide mission. Two, if we retrieve these people, they will be brought to Atlas. You may sit in on their questioning in the process I suppose. And three, you owe me a huge deal."

Ozpin nodded without hesitation. "I agree to those terms. And please, make haste…" he said, bowing slightly before shutting off the monitors. He looked over at Glynda, who looked equal parts nervous and irritated. He sighed.

"Did I make the right choice, Glynda…"

 **Hello again, with a warning. Yeah yeah, I said that these guys were from earth. However, I wanted to give them utterly ridiculous weapons. Y'know, It's rwby. So if these weapons seem incredibly outlandish and impossible, good! That means I did my job right. Blame how I made Three. That wonderful mad scientist who can seemingly break all the rules. So if something I say does not happen to make physical sense, ignore it, for your sake.**

Meanwhile, the Ticks were already fighting for their lives. They had no ideas about where these creatures had come from or really what they had wanted. However, as soon as the tide of creatures started attacking them, they had gotten into their battle gear and made haste to survive this onslaught as best they could. The weapons of the Ticks were as diverse as the crew, as each one had their own specialties in fighting. So needless to say, the poor mercenaries had all bases covered in terms of defense.

Three was running around below decks, his faithful AI Centimaine aiming the cannons, mortars, missiles, everything. Most of the weapons aimed skyward, as a large number of those flying creatures were circling overhead. The shots went off, easily felling hundreds of Grimm, whether from direct hits, or explosions causing shrapnel to pierce and destroy. He smirked at his monitor as he saw that the ship was in perfect condition still. "That's it Molly… we can make it…"

Eins was pissed. This whole situation was insane. Sure he had somehow lost decades off of his actual age, but he had all of his strength from his prior age. He had noticed this when he had grabbed his favorite gun. The beautiful _Meistersinger_ was a massive minigun. At seventeen, he should not have been able to lift it, as it had taken him years of training before he could maneuver it in his capable hands. Yet as his strength had returned to him, he was now swinging the much too large gun around. It was a beauty of a minigun, and like all weapons, heavily customised by Three. That meant that it had two rotating barrels next to each other, with the huge ammunition rounds being fed into the main compartment of the gun. The bullets were 1.3 caliber rounds being fired off at a blistering 15 rounds per second. He had no idea how Three had done it, or how he himself could wield it, but he was thankful for both situations as he watched beowolves, ursa, and even a deathstalker or two get torn to shreds from the intense firepower.

Ni was an oddity among the Ticks, as he preferred up close combat instead of ranged gunfights. In order to compensate for this, Three had designed for him a cybernetic samurai armor set. Mask set in the traditional scowling Oni face, the HUD allowed him a full 360 degree view. It had taken extreme mental training in order to effectively utilise the overwhelming amount of information, but Ni was glad he had pulled through that training in order to be able to withstand the barrage. His weapon of choice was a highly experimental sword that he had named _Muramasa_. It had a metal spine, but it was the edge of the sword that was really special. It was a specially designed crystal made by, you guessed it, Three. It was as tough as diamonds, yet could easily be superheated by the rest of the sword without losing integrity. The heats it could reach meant that the armour had to be extremely insulated for him to wield it comfortably. He did not know the exact temperatures it could reach, but as it melted the chitin on a deathstalker's head as the blade simply passed on through it, killing the grimm instantly, he was grateful for Three. The man's tech had helped them survive much longer than any of them had a right to. Noticing a pack of beowolves surrounding him completely, he got into position before whirling back into battle.

Ah, the beloved _Flamma_ tank. No one knows what Three had done, but the greek triplets were always having a blast when operating the weapons systems. Tessera operated the computers controlling the heavy machine guns pointing in all directions around the heavy machine. He was laughing delightedly as Otto and Nove drove the tank through hordes of Grimm, crushing the smaller ones under tread, even driving over some of the larger Grimm. The guns were blazing on all sides, demolishing everything in a medium range from _Flamma_. The shorter range Grimm were being taken care of by Exi, who was operating the _Pompeii_ system on _Flamma_. Suiting its name, the mechanism turned the area immediately around them into a blazing hellstorm. Flamethrowers, tesla coils, and a rear mounted… magma spewer? Exi shook his head at the thought. That wack scientist Three… he would never cease to amaze. As the tank would drive along, It would scoop up the ground beneath it, feeding the materials into the superheated chamber, melting it down into a molten pool that would spill out behind _Flamma_ , trapping and outright killing the Grimm behind them. It was a powerful weapon, yet not the most lethal one on the tank. That spot was given to Pente, who operated the _Olympus_ cannon. It was a most devastating weapon mounted to the top of the tank. Three had worked his magic yet again, creating a weapon that overshadowed the legendary "russian shotgun". It was a truly terrifying 39-inch bore cannon that would take a portion of the magma from the _Pompeii_ system and let it cool into a cannonball shaped mold, creating grapeshot where each pellet was five inches across. Sure it took forever to load, but the outcome was devastating. A literal storm of five inch cannonballs flying at twice the speed they should caused all of the projectiles to shatter mid air, creating a cloud of searing hot razor sharp shrapnel that would cover an area fifty feet wide. Pente laughed in joy as he saw a massive hole appeared in the flying Grimm with a satisfying earth rocking boom.

Sem was a special case. He was the only one that did not allow Three to touch his weapons, as they were highly volatile. Currently he was chucking molotov cocktails everywhere into the crowd of monsters. They would erupt in gouts of flame, toasting all grimm in the area. Then he pulled _Matryoshka_ off of his back and began firing the specialized shells. These shells were specially designed by Sem himself to sort of imitate the traditional russian nesting dolls. Each one was carefully hand painted to resemble the dolls. When they reached the pinnacle of their arc, they would split open to rain five more mini painted bombs that would explode on contact with anything, detonating in a surprisingly massive explosion each. Seeing a grimm that looked an awful lot like an elephant, he charged at it, while patiently waiting. When it opened its mouth and bellowed a challenge, he fired a doll straight down its gullet and grinned, watching its throat erupt in a massive explosion, messily decapitating it. He quietly chuckled, muttering "Boom, boom." under his breath as he whirled around and kept fighting.

Ten was silent. He was currently crouched up in the heavily armored crows nest of the ship with his trusty sniper rifle, the _Victoria._ Man, could that gun pack a punch. Again, designs made by Three resulted in a weird weapon, and this was no exception. With the rather massive 2.00 caliber rounds having the concave points, Ten knew that it would easily ruin anyone's day. Somehow Three had designed it perfectly so that these shells would scoop air as they flew perfectly straight, resulting in a hole being made in the target before the bullet hit, meaning the shots could penetrate multiple targets or pierce armor. And penetrate they did. Patiently awaiting the moment it happened, he pulled the trigger, causing holes to appear straight through the head of an ursa, three beowolves, and cut off the leg of a Deathstalker, all with one shot. He slid the chamber open and the spent round shot out with a clank as he smoothly loaded a new one into the chamber. He grinned, whistling the battle hymn of the republic as he aimed down the scope once more.

The brute squad was one of the most terrifying things the Ticks had to offer, coming in fourth after _Flamma_ in first, _Molly_ in second, and an angry Sautjan in third. The four scotsmen wore combat armor painted in highland blue war paint, their faces done the same too. They always charged into battle, coming out the otherside awfully injured most of the time, their enemies in a much worse condition. Aon wielded _Wallace_ , a set of two flamethrowers with large swords for bayonets and fuel tanks on his back. It was the third heaviest of the personal weapons, only coming behind Eins's _Meistersinger_ and Sautjan's…. Weapon of choice. Aon spun through the crowds of beowolves, laughing out loud as his swords slashed and his flames burned. Dha wielded _Mary_ , a huge ball and chain that constantly had an electric charge going through. He swung it in wide arcs, the ball cracking the skulls as the charge leapt into the bodies, frying them to a crisp. Tri wielded _Fergus_ , a quadruple barreled shotgun that fired buckshot and slugs alternatively, larger than any rounds used in regular hunting. Ceither wielded _Alastair_ , a grim weapon to combat the grimm with. It was a massive battleaxe with a tesla coil inside, meaning that with every swing, not only would his axe cleave through one grimm, but it would send arcs of lightning out to all grimm nearby, frying them on the spot. All four stood just far apart from each other so that they would not have friendly fire, but close enough that no grimm separated the four. They roared with delight as they brought hell upon the never ending tide of Grimm.

Shiwu and Seize stood staring at each other inside the ship, saddened by the knowledge that they were not useful out there. Stealthy takedowns were not possible when every inch of free space is occupied by something that wants to kill you or something that will accidentally do it anyways. Shiwu scowled as he heard the beowolves howling, the screeching of the nevermores, the roaring of the ursas and goliaths, and the defiant shouts of the men defending the ship. Seize was a little nervous. He was not a combat oriented individual, instead opting to take the gentle, sophisticated route that his compatriots did not share. While they did the dirty work, he was the one who covered for when things went south, and he pushed the right people for more rewards when they succeeded. He knew he was in a very bad situation, and did not know how to help at all. And so they sat, stared, and listened to the clock ticking on the wall.

Ah, Sautjan. The big man mountain. Jokingly called "shorty" by his friend Muoi Tam, at his prior age, he was a whopping seven foot nine. Of course, now he was just a puny seven one. With that height came a massive amount of muscle and strength, which enabled him to wield _Bonecrusher_ and _Fleshrender_ with terrifying ease. An angry Sautjan was considered the third most terrifying thing with the Ticks, but when you throw _Bonecrusher_ into the mix, he can even give _Flamma_ a run for its money. Give him _Fleshrender_ , and you have seen the face of death. It was truly one of Three's biggest accomplishments. _Fleshrender_ was a cross between a minigun and a shotgun, but with a sickening twist. Each shell fired was hollow. In the front, there was a section of liquid neon at a chilling -425 degrees fahrenheit. Lurking just behind that lay a coarse gravel. When a shell hit a target, the liquid froze that area of flesh instantly, and the gravel would tear in right behind it, shattering the portion of flesh and penetrating into the body. Sure, it only fired 3 rounds per second, but it was more than enough to demolish everyone. He currently was using this and roaring as it decimated all grimm before him. _Bonecrusher_ , on the other hand, was strapped to his back. It was simple yet complex, elegant, yet brutal. It was a hammer the likes of which are never seen before. Its head was made of the heaviest material found to date, carefully engraved with complex icelandic scrollwork. And that was it. Not overly special or flashy, yet in Sautjan's capable hands, well… let's leave it at the fact that that one armored truck was not originally smart car sized.

Then there was Sautjan's pint-sized buddy. Muoi Tam was a fast, slippery little fellow. His weapons of choice were a pair of SMGs, named _Hanh hung va pin_ (assault and battery), modified to shoot explosive bullets. He wore a pair of jet boots that elevated his insane speeds to new heights, as well as razor wires that he used to slash feet or trip up enemies. He was currently sprinting recklessly through the horde, cutting ankles, shooting others, and barely dodging a huge amount of attacks. Needless to say he was making Sautjan worry, so every now and then he would jump up into the air and give a shout out to him to let him know everything was alright. All the other fighters would breathe a collective sigh of relief every time he jumped, because the diminutive man was really hard to keep track of in the maelstrom of grimm.

Neunzehn und Zwanzig, despite their father's unhappy disappointment at the fact they had joined him, were glad they did. The several battles they fought in more than made up for the time Eins had stayed away from them, allowing them to get even closer. Currently the boys were standing back to back, using standard assault rifles, seeing as their father forbade Three from giving them anything highly dangerous. So they fired, reloaded, and kept up the fight with the simplistic weaponry. They were not completely displeased, the weapons required a lot less maintenance than the rest, but they wished they could have their own one day.

And Leonidas…

Leonidas was missing. Not one of the soldiers knew where he was, and Three was the only one who could confirm that he was out there and alive. The only reason no one was worried was because every battle, Leonidas did that. He always came back, and they always won. Looking out on the sea of grimm, stretching off forever into the horizon, they wondered if this would be the same case.

And so, the first half hour of the great grimm offensive passed.

Ozpin and Glynda were sitting in Ozpin's office, waiting for any news from Ironwood about the status of the mysterious crew. Suddenly Ozpin's scroll buzzed, and he opened the call from Ironwood. "Please tell me you bring news…" He said urgently.

"I do not get what you are so panicked about anyways. They are not your soldiers. However, our view has unfortunately changed…." Ironwood said, putting a new picture of the area up on the call. Upon seeing it, Glynda gasped and Ozpin's eyes widened.

The ground surrounding the ship was pitch black, and black clouds swarmed overhead. There was a small circle of clear land around the boat, explosions were caught in the picture, and what was happening could be clearly seen. They were apparently holding their own against the horde of Grimm, but for how long was unsure. A snippet of a song came unbidden to Ozpin's mind as he looked at the frozen picture. And he couldn't help but sing it.

"Far from their land as they made their stand, They stood strong and the legend still lives on" he mumbled, eliciting a questioning glance from Glynda.

"Headmaster?"

"I'm sorry, I… do not know what came over me, I've never heard that song before…" he mumbled, shaking his head. Ironwood sighed.

"Anyways, I have bolstered the force sent to receive them, so you owe me even more now Ozpin, especially if this does not pull through successfully. They will arrive at the edge of the frontier in another half of an hour. Hold up…" he mumbled, looking behind him at an unspecified worker. "Ozpin… we seem to be receiving a strange signal. It's coming from the general area of that mysterious group. We are busy trying to interpret it. We are sending a recording to your scroll now." Needless to say, an alert popped up immediately.

"I'll see what we can do with it James. And thank you. Keep me posted if you don't mind."

It was only 45 minutes into the assault when the first major injuries happened to the Ticks.

Neunzehn and Zwanzig were standing back to back, but the grimm on all sides began to close in slowly. It was right at that moment when Neunzehn's gun jammed. The click followed by silence in the gun instantly brought fear into the hearts of the two boys. Immediately, Zwanzig screamed into the earpiece they all wore.

"Scheisse! We need backup pronto! Neunzehn's gun is jammed and we are surrounded!" he shouted, redoubling his efforts while trying to get back towards the _Molly Brown_. However, one assault rifle is not good enough to keep a full perimeter while simultaneously trying to hustle two people along. The Beowolves were getting more eager, pushing closer and closer over the dissolving corpses of their comrades. One particularly eager one dove forward, swinging its claws, but Neunzehn managed to block with his rifle. As Zwanzig spun around to fire upon the beowolf, another lunged from behind him and raked its claws down Zwanzig's back. He shouted out in pain, further increasing his need to get back to the ship before they are massacred completely. A couple of nevermores launched their feathers at the two boys, which they narrowly dodged, only to receive more claw marks from more grimm. Suddenly a roar was heard and all of the grimm near the two were obliterated, torn apart with extreme prejudice. They turned and saw eins standing there, _Meistersinger_ leveled at the crowd. They frantically rushed back to where their father was, getting within the shrinking perimeter around the _Molly_. There simply were not enough men to protect the boat, and the storm around them was becoming more ferocious as some of the older Grimm joined the fray, sensing the weakening of the soldiers. _Flamma_ was still demolishing the one flank with the aid of Sautjan, but the rest of the men were starting to receive knicks and scratches here and there.

Suddenly Leonidas appeared through the fray, slashing through grimm with cold efficiency and a large machete. He helped momentarily drive the forces back, but the Grimm were not to be denied. They surged forwards again, lunging at the men, only to be reduced to a dissolving corpse by any of the highly capable warriors. Suddenly a voice came over the voice comms.

"Дерьмо boys. I apologize. It has been an honor serving with you for this long. I hope you all survive this. I am just down to my last resort. _Matryoshka_ is broken… Leonidas sir, You were the best leader I could have asked for. Gentlemen, I must go. My wife is waiting for me… **За здоровье!"**

All of the men listened quietly as Sem's voice came to a stop with that last cheer, before an absolutely enormous fireball erupted from Sem's last known location, Incinerating all of the grimm in a half kilometer radius, effectively erasing all signs that life had existed there moments before. But sadly, Sem's final act was nullified by the sudden pouring of Grimm back into that space, rushing at the now supposedly empty spot. With no time to properly say any goodbyes, all of the men simply muttered a prayer of some kind for the poor man, sent to join his wife. No tears were shed, as there was no time to do so.

And so passed the first full hour of the assault.

The commander of the atlesian troops sent to recover the men looked over what he had been given to work with before turning to the wilderness that lay before them. Paladins, knights, soldiers, weaponry of all kinds, he knew that this was still a likely suicide mission. An hour has already passed since the "ship" had arrived in the forsaken lands. The record for longest time survived here was the three hours of the government supported colonists, and they had a force of hundreds. Yet these people appeared out of nowhere and they have survived for an hour so long. He had no idea what they would find honestly. He looked down and saw that there were no Grimm in the area, which he found disconcerting. Looking at his men, he saw that everyone was ready, so he signaled them all to move out.

Once more, Ozpin's scroll buzzed. It was Ironwood, which meant that it was promptly answered. It was just him in his office now, Glynda had gone down to the classes she had to teach, but she was a little distracted with the whole situation going on.

"Yes Ironwood."

"We have had no luck translating the signal we had received. Any luck on your end?" Ironwood looked a little bit disheveled, his outfit just barely askew. Ozpin knew that he didn't look much better, having gone through six pots of coffee in the last hour. Ozpin took another sip.

"We have found a book in the library that had made mention to a similar type of communication, and we have been translating it so far… What is the status of your men?"

"The Atlesian soldiers have landed meeting absolutely no resistance from Grimm. This is highly irregular, especially for this area. All we can assume is that the new arrivals seem to have drawn the grimm to them. It is incredibly strange and a bit unnerving as well, but it will serve us well I guess." Ironwood said, rubbing his forehead. He honestly had no idea what was going on out there, but he would take every little bit he could to ensure the safety of his men. Doctor Oobleck arrived at the office in a blur, handing a scrap of paper to Ozpin.

"Headmaster, we have translated the message! It is a unique way of communicating! Astounding! Incredible! Absolutely-" Ozpin cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"That's enough Doctor, I can handle it from here. You can go and prepare for your next class." Oobleck bowed slightly, the frazzled man zipping off again. Ozpin began sipping from his mug, reading the scrap of paper. He froze up, setting his mug down. This alone was enough to immediately attract Ironwood's attention.

"What does it read Ozpin?" He subtly leaned towards the camera, the interest quite clear on his face. This message could very well entail the entire essence of what they were getting into.

"It reads as follows… _This is the Molly Brown, we request backup or extraction immediately. We do not care what government you are, we are the Ticks. Please send help. We do not know how long we can hold out._ " Ozpin looked up to Ironwood. "Have you ever heard about these… Ticks, or the _Molly Brown_?" All he got was a negative shake of his head as a response. Suddenly new pings were heard on Ironwood's side, signifying a new transmission from the newly named ship coming in. Immediately, Ironwood sent it to Ozpin who sent it to Oobleck once more. After a few terse minutes of waiting, Oobleck came rushing back into the office, giving the paper to Ozpin. As before, Ozpin quickly dismissed Oobleck before reading the message out loud once more.

"Alright… This one seems a bit more personal than the last one…. _This is the Molly Brown again. I'm putting a lot of faith that there is someone who can receive and translate this, but oh well. If there isn't anyone, I suppose I have been wasting my time. If you are out there, please try and send a message. If you just plan on letting us die out here, well up yours then. At least tell us. We have already lost one man, and a few others are injured. So hurry it up, we don't want to take all of the fun from you guys._ That's what it says. What do you think? Can you broadcast a message back to them on the same channel?"

Ironwood nodded. "That seems highly likely. If you can get that nutty doctor of yours to write a message in the manner that they sent one to us, then we can send it back to them." He said. He was actually quite impressed with these unknown soldiers. A group of twenty-one young men, holding off a maelstrom of Grimm, and only one casualty after an hour of fighting. They seemed to be quite powerful. Ozpin meanwhile, was growing more confident in the men's ability to survive.

The men were resolved to fight until the bitter end after losing Sem. They were slowly being pushed back towards the _Molly Brown_ , for even with the incredibly powerful weaponry they had, they were still grossly outnumbered. So the battle wore on, the men injecting themselves with Three's special adrenaline shots as they got tired so that they could keep going on. They knew that the instant they slowed down, they would slip up and die. So they only fought harder, ignoring the harmful side effects that would occur after the shots wore off. They knew that using them was paramount if they wanted to make it. So on they fought.

Three was sitting on the bridge of the ship, operating all of the machinery he could, when suddenly he got a beep from one of the machines. One of the cannons had been destroyed after a barrage of Nevermore feathers. Another beep rang out, saying that one of the missile systems was out of missiles entirely. He swore. This situation was not good. Suddenly, a ping was heard from the communications device. He played the message comprised of long and short beeps, his face growing more excited.

"Hey guys! Good news or bad news first!" He shouted into the comms.

"I think some good news would be welcome, so let's get the bad news out of the way first." Leonidas said calmly.

"Well, the radar says that the swarm of these creatures has not thinned once in this entire fight. Many of the systems on the ship are getting destroyed."

"Scheisse… Good news?" Eins's voice rang out.

"Those messages I sent out in morse code? Just got a response! There are sentient intelligent people out there!"

"Tuyệt! What did they say?" Muoi Tam's voice came onto the channel.

"They said that they are sending a military force out to retrieve us, but they said that they did not know how long it would take to reach us." Three spoke, the relief evident. There were a bunch of mixed cheers over the radio as the men celebrated the news.

"Men! Focus! We are not out of it yet! The enemies are all around us and reinforcements can be many hours away! Do not relax, I repeat, do NOT get sloppy and lazy! Fight on men! Seize!" Leonidas called through.

"Oui."

"Get to three now and see if you can establish a communication with the people who responded. We need your diplomacy to make sure we won't be killed as soon as they get here!"

"Will do sir. I'm on it."

"Good. Men! Listen up! If you make it through this, a night of drinks is on me! If you die, We will make sure to send you off with the biggest fucking sendoff you can get. Honestly, I'd prefer to drink with you guys. So do not die on me! For Sem!" Leonidas shouted, charging into battle once more. With a hearty cheer of "For Sem!", the rest of the soldiers flung themselves back into the fight.

As Seize joined three in the communication room, he took a notice of the clock on the wall.

They were an hour and fifteen minutes in….

"Sir! You may want to see this!"

A worker for Ironwood called him over to the computer that the man was working at. A mysterious window had popped up in the bottom of the screen. There was the silhouette of a tick with a message "accept connection?" next to it. Ironwood blinked. "How… how did they get that message here? No matter. Connect with it." He commanded. He also brought Ozpin up on the screen behind him. "Send it to the main monitor." As it connected, the image expanded until a black screen shared the screen with Ozpin's tired face. James could see Glynda in the background of the one screen. "Ozpin, Before they connect, know that they had ended up hacking into our computer to establish this connection. These people are probably experts." Ozpin nodded.

"Very well, we shall see what they want."

…

Seize, needless to say, was surprised when the call screen split into two, signifying two parties privy to this call. He stood up and straightened his outfit before sitting in the chair in front. He had no idea what he was going to see. Let the game begin.

…

Ozpin straightened his own outfit and poured himself a new cup of coffee as he waited for the call to connect through. Glynda was in the background, nervously gripping her riding crop, waiting for the new arrival. She had no idea what status the men were in. They had reached an hour and fifteen minutes in the forsaken lands, blowing past most people's records. What kind of battle hardened soldiers lay on the other side of this call?

…..

Seize cracked his fingers as Three pushed the last few buttons on the computer. "Connecting in five… four… three… two… one…. Live!"

He grinned as the screens lit up. Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood all were rather shocked at the image that presented before them. A seventeen year old boy sat in a chair in front of the screens, wearing a long light red trench coat, a black vest, a white shirt, and a matching red bourret on his head. He was smiling at them.

"Bonjour! Hello! Guten Tag, and Hola!" He said, standing up, removing his hat, and bowing. He quickly put his hat back on and sat down, waiting for a response. Ironwood was the first to recover.

"Are you with the Ticks that sent out the message earlier?" he demanded immediately.

"Certainly! I am Seize! I am one of the only ones available to talk to you gentlemen and lovely lady, seeing as the rest of the men are… well, you know." He said, not even flinching at the sounds of explosions nearby. Ozpin nodded.

"We understand entirely. We know how hard it is to combat the creatures of Grimm, and you men seem to be stuck in the largest recorded swarm of Grimm before. How are your men holding up?"

" _Aucun,_ they are not my men. I am merely our resident diplomat. Our leader is out leading the charge into the… Grimm as we speak. I must say, I am quite surprised that Three, our resident technological wizard, was able to connect with you guys. Imagine our surprise when we found out you had a massive unified communication network." Three briefly poked his head in, displaying his blue buzz cut and silver lensed goggles on his forehead. He smiled apologetically. "He had to hack into your computers, and we apologize, but we promise we did not view anything sensitive. All we had done was establish a connection. Now, You know who I am, who are you?" Seize finished.

"I am General James Ironwood, and my companions are Headmaster Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch." Seize had to hold back his laughter, his face giving nothing away. "They are my men who are on route to retrieve you guys. How long do you think you can hold out?"

"Well, we are not sure at the moment. One of our men had died about… half an hour ago. I have had no reports of further casualties. However I would request that we keep this line of communication open so we can instantly report any further developments as they occur." He said smoothly. "And thank you, General sir, for sending your men out to get us. We greatly appreciate the gesture sir. You see, we have no idea where we are. One moment we are sitting on board our vessel the _Molly Brown_ , and the next moment alarms are blaring and oh _merde_ it was terrifying to suddenly be attacked by these Grimm. Now I have something of note to tell you guys. All of these men fighting for our lives are seventeen years old. Yet before we arrived here, we were older than that. So… Do you have any ideas about what may have happened to us?"

Again, he kept his laughter on the inside about the faces that everybody was making. He knew it was undignified to laugh at others, especially when establishing contact with foreign military powers. He wanted the first appearance of the Ticks to be dignified and he especially did not want to annoy his rescuers. He wanted out and he knew that the men wanted the same thing. So he stayed his laughter.

"Um… How is this possible?" Ozpin asked. He had recovered fairly quickly, and Seize expected this question out of at least one of the people present. He had analyzed all three of them and came to various conclusions.

"Well headmaster, we have no idea. The truth behind our appearance on this world is outrageous, but it is the truth, so please take us seriously. We were apparently sailing through a clear sea when a mysterious inescapable purple portal appeared and pulled us in, dropping us down here. Please, I beg of you, believe us."

"I do." Ozpin said. He had taken all of this calmly, and both Glynda and Ironwood were looking between Ozpin and Seize in shock. They were not taking this nearly as calm as they could have been. "It makes sense. All we know is that suddenly, a massive beam of light, shaded purple, erupted into the sky right where you were. And in answer to your question from before, No, we do not know how you could have reversed age to that exact point or how you got here. We apologize."

"No need to apologize to us. We have given you no reason to assist or trust us, but you have done both. Thank you for that. I shall tell you more about us. We are a group of twenty-one mercenaries from all over earth that got together and formed our squad, the Ticks. We earned that name after helping those who were desperately outnumbered but fighting for a good cause. We would come in and defeat armies hundreds of times our size. Three here has designed almost every weapon, every communication device, and every vehicle we own. Our leader is a man named Leonidas, a man we all respect and admire. There are the five that drive our tank _Flamma_ , a devastating weapon of war. They are Tessera, Pente, Exi, Otto, and Nove. Ni is our melee combat specialist and a force to be reckoned with. Sem… Sem was our demolitions expert, and the only casualty thus far. A good man. Aon-Deug, Dha-dheug, Tri-deug, and Ceithir-deug make up our brute squad, but Sautjan out-muscles them all. Muoi Tam is our scout, a fast but tiny man. Eins is our second in command, and Neunzehn and Zwanzig are his children. I am Seize, our diplomat, Ten is the man in charge of our money and also our sniper, and Shiwu is our antisocial stealth master. Any questions?"

Out on the battlefield, things were not smooth sailing. All members of the brute squad were racking up many injuries, and several of the machine guns on _Flamma_ were broken. Sautjan was covered in light lacerations and everyone was starting to get low on ammunition. They were retreating towards the ship slowly, only able to push them back due to the boxes of ammunition that Three kept chucking at them from the deck of _Molly_.

Muoi Tam was arguably having the worst time of all of the men. His risky maneuvers meant that he was usually far from the rest of the men. This also meant that he was neck deep in grimm. The only things that kept him running around were his boots and smgs, seeing as one kept him up and the other kept him away. His watch beeped, signifying he needed the next injection if he wanted to keep running at the same speed.

Those specialized shots, nicknamed "party poppers" by the men had a very special effect on the men. They filled the men with a potent mix of chemicals that boosted the physical and mental capacities of the men. Their strength, speed and jump heights would be boosted, and their reaction times were skyrocketed. When the men first began using them, the effects would last a couple hours off of a quarter dose, but it would leave them exhausted at the end. They built up a tolerance, requiring a lot more for the same effect. However, the cost of using them also increased greatly. When the chemicals were all gone, everything would return back to normal in an instant. However, any exhaustion that they would feel after doing what they were doing normally would also instantly hit them at the same time. So in a high stress situation, it was imperative that enough shots were had to make it through.

Unfortunately for Muoi, he did not have enough shots.

He was mid stride when suddenly his watch beeped. With trained movements he reached down into the special satchel he had down at his side, not too large so that it wouldn't get in his way as he ran. That unfortunately meant that he did not hold nearly as many shots as the rest of them. He was reaching down, only to grasp at nothing. His eyes widened when he realized he had no shots left, and he was too far from the ship for Three to throw any to him. The exhaustion hit him as he was extending his leg to take another step, and it took all his willpower to stay conscious as he staggered. All of the Grimm nearby realized that this tiny human was weakened and they all rushed him. He pointed himself towards the ship and activated his boot rockets, shooting up into the air. A nearby goliath saw him and swung its head around towards him, one of its tusks smashing into the back of his head, sending him towards the ground. He slammed into the ground and bounced up, only for a deathstalker to smack him with a claw, sending him flying at the _Molly Brown._ He skipped off the ground and was immediately set upon by a small horde of beowolves. They began slashing at him with their claws, causing him to scream out in pain. Sautjan was the closest, and he recognized the sound of his good friend. Bellowing in rage, he charged over, clearing all of the grimm away from Muoi. He knelt down and picked Muoi up, charging back towards the _Molly_. He looked down at the small man in his arms.

"No…" Sautjan mumbled, seeing the state he was in. Muoi's abdomen had been torn to shreds and internal organs were leaking out. Blood was streaming from the back of his head, and his limbs dangled uselessly. Muoi let out a weak cough before activating his comm.

"cũng bé trai, I am lost. I am *cough* sorry I failed you Leonidas…" He broke into a wracking cough, blood spurting from his mouth. "I wished to have that drink with you… Farewell…"

All of the soldiers bowed their heads in respect. Muoi Tam was always a fun guy, cracking jokes, always a bundle of fun. He would be missed dearly. They all said quiet words of goodbye to him through the comms. Then he reached up and turned off his comm. "Sautjan…" He began, but Sautjan shushed him.

"Quiet _sá litli_ , you can still make it…" He said, trying to hold back tears. The mountainous man had always been a big softy, and now his best friend was dying in his arms.

" _ngốc lớn_ , listen… I know I'm dying… I'm not gonna make it…. Promise me something…" The little Vietnamese man said, his voice growing faint. Sautjan put his head close. "Survive… and kill every last one of these bastards…." he said with a chuckle. "But I have no doubt you were going to anyways…" he looked at the sky and the broken moon. "Glad… I could…. Have you….. By…. my…. Side…." He whispered, before going limp and letting out a rattling final breath. Sautjan had tears streaming down his face now as he closed Muoi Tam's eyes. He wiped the tears away and stood up straight, setting _Fleshrender_ down and pushing a button, turning it into an automated turret. He set Muoi down behind it. He pulled _Bonecrusher_ off his back, setting it gently on the ground before activating his comms.

"Leonidas… You said never to do it again, but I'm going to."

Leonidas's eyes widened. "Understood. Everybody please clear from where Sautjan is. He is using _it_ now."

Immediately anyone who was on Sautjan's side of the ship cleared out of there as fast as they could. He pulled out a handful of the "Party Poppers", about ten in total, and swung them, stabbing them all into his chest, shoving the plungers down. His skin became red as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, he grabbed _Bonecrusher_ in one hand and bellowed a challenge that made the Grimm tremble briefly. Then he was gone in an instant, as he began rushing around crushing all of the grimm to paste, keeping the entire flank of the ship safe.

And so an hour and forty-five minutes passed.

Seize was sitting quietly in front of the screen, simply looking between Ironwood and Ozpin, as they did the same thing. He put his hand to his earpiece and winced. "General sir, how far out are your men?"

"Let's see… still maybe an hour out, maybe longer. You seem to be really far in."

"Great… we just lost Muoi Tam… poor bastard. He was good friends with Sautjan… wait a minute…" his eyes widened. This caught the headmaster and general off guard.

"What's wrong?" Ozpin asked, concerned.

" _Mon Dieu…_ He can't be serious…."

"What is going on out there?" Ironwood demanded.

"Sautjan just received permission to use _it_ …"

"What is _It_?" Ozpin asked, wondering what could have gotten such a reaction from the collected individual.

"Well, monsieur, Three had developed these things called 'Party poppers', which are like temporary performance enhancing drugs. They boost just about everything to superhuman levels. Only one man can use more than one at a time, and that is Sautjan. With two at once, he can throw cars one handed. With each extra one, he gains more power but loses more self control. _It_ is what we fear the most. When he utilises _it_ , he loses all forms of self control, but in return, well, I think it is best if I show you." He patched in one of the security cameras from the outside of the ship to the screen. What was on it made the two powerful men drop their jaws to the floor.

A sea of black stretched to the horizon, comprised entirely of Grimm. Several Goliaths were seen as well. But whenever the grimm reached a certain distance from the ship, they would hit the ground, their heads flattened until they were two dimensional. They held their breaths as a goliath approached the ship only for Sautjan appear in front of it with a roar and smash its face with a hammer, sending it flying off, crushing tons of Grimm. Then he disappeared from view and more grimm kept getting flattened or flung back. Seize patched the camera back so that he was the only one visible.

"So that is why I reacted the way I did. I am sure you understand why we need you to arrive as quickly as possible general. If that wears off, we will certainly be overrun. Please hasten."

By the time the two hour mark was reached, things were going from bad to worse. A lucky shot from a Nevermore feather had flown and ended up severing one of Three's arms, so he had wrapped bandages around the stump, swearing profusely. All of the members of the brute squad had run out of ammunition, so all of them were forced to use their weapons as melee weapons. By two hours and ten minutes, the grimm had pushed even closer to the _Molly Brown_ and the airborne grimm were taking out more and more of the weapons on the ship. With each consecutive damage report that came in, Seize relayed it to those on the other side of the screen. _Flamma_ was having a really rough time, drawing attention from most of the grimm around. While it could do so much damage, the grimm were relentless and endless in numbers. Neunzehn and Zwanzig both began receiving more injuries from the constant barrage of beowolves. Ni had run out of poppers, but luckily he was close enough to the ship that he was able to get enough to keep fighting and not go down. By two and a half hours, everything started to go downhill at an extremely rapid pace.

Now, by this point, they had already clinched the silver medal for longest time spent in the forsaken lands, but the men did not know this. What they knew was limited to what was immediately in front of them, and it was not very hard to become discouraged at what they were facing. Looking around, they saw that the swarm had not decreased in density or ferocity, while even with the poppers, they were tiring. Not physically, but mentally, just through the sheer mind-numbing repetitiveness of mowing down the creatures. Even with the chemicals helping, a few of the men began slipping up, allowing strikes to get through their guard that they really should not have. Eins had received a large gash on a bicep from a nevermore feather, and the members of the brute squad began taking heavy blows. However, it was Ten who drew the short straw for injuries at that moment. Being in the crow's nest meant that the only grimm to attack him were the Nevermores and griffons. But the projectiles fired from the horrendous bird creatures were proving difficult to deal with, and the platform looked like a bundle of feathers. Ten was in a way grateful for this, seeing as the feathers could not pierce through each other, so he made a mostly impenetrable bunker out of the feathers around him, leaving a few holes to poke his rifle through. However, the luckiest of all shots happened. As he stuck his rifle out of the shelter, a couple nevermores flapped their wings, launching the feathers at the bunker. Ten moved his rifle so the scope aimed upwards at the group, only for one feather to pierce through his scope and gouge out his eye. He fell back, screaming in pain. The nevermores, hearing this, all began firing more feathers at the bunker. Every now and then, another feather would find a hole in his defenses, impaling a part of him to the nest. First his left leg, then his right arm, then his right foot. He quickly hit his comm.

"Guys I'm hit pretty bad up here in the nest. Pinned to it actually. Also….. I lost a bloody eye and it fucking hurts. I'm unable to support you guys from here…"

"I dunno what to say to ya lad." Aon-deug said as he fought off another ursa with _Wallace._ "It's not really like any of us can get to you…"

" _Duìbùqǐ,_ I think I can finally do something…" Shiwu mumbled into the comms, already rushing above deck. "Hang on ten, I'll have you out of there quick as the wind."

Seize rubbed his forehead. " _Merde_ , our sniper just lost his eye and the use of most of his body… A little while ago, Three lost an arm… How far out are you guys? Distance would be useful." He said, looking at the two leaders before him, who were looking increasingly worried. Ironwood looked at his scroll.

"Currently, My men appear to be… Thirty miles out." He said. "Their progress has been slowed drastically though by the edge of the Grimm attacking you right now."

" _Putain d'enfer_ , that is bad." he tapped his Comm. "Three, how large of a radius is _Molly_ 's 'big boom'?"

A faint voice was heard to the two on the other side of the screen. "Erm… well, you know how finicky atomic explosions are… But the extreme danger zone is about 10 miles, seeing as it's a custom payload size… that's a rough estimate. Unsafe to be around up to twenty miles. Whaddya think Leonidas? Is it worth it to use?"

Ozpin and Ironwood shared looks of utmost fright at the possibility of a weapon that can do that much damage. Another voice faded in. "ask this General guy how long he would expect to close the thirty miles to us."

Ironwood shook himself. "Well, with the current density of the grimm and our own rate of casualties, Hours upon hours. We can not guarantee getting to you at all." Seize repeated these messages across the comms so Leonidas could hear them. An outburst of shouts and curses were clearly heard as seize winced.

"Honestly sir, the gist of what these guys are saying is your men must be pretty incompetent to already be massacred minutes after reaching the grimm. We have been stuck here for two and a half hours already." Ironwood looked offended at the remark, but conceded to the point. It was true. Leonidas spoke up.

"Anyways, _Flamma_ , status report?"

" _Nai, nai,_ All is shit as usual. Most machine guns are down, and there is an issue with the groundskeeper, so only _Olympus_ is working and not the magma spreader. However, we can still fight on." Tessera was the one who responded. One could hear Leonidas clearing his throat.

"How much space do you have inside that tank? I think I am having a plan."

This time Otto spoke up. "We aren't a _cazzo di taxi_ here, but we do have enough space for two or three people in here. Why do you ask?"

Leonidas ignored him. "Three, _Flamma_ can survive the _Molly_ if she goes boom?"

"Aye captain, I built him to specifically survive that magnitude of attack. Don't forget about the secure vault inside the ship as well."

"Ah yes. Alright men, I need you to listen up. What I am planning will guarantee that a few of you will sacrifice your lives for your comrades' sakes."

Seize sighed and put his comm on speaker mode. "The ones on the line can hear your orders sir. They are probably going to want to hear this."

"Thank you Seize. Now listen up boys! Those of you in Flamma, Pull back towards the Molly. Three, tranquilize Sautjan and bring him into the vault. Dha and Ceithir guard him. Shiwu, Bring Ten to the vault as well. Seize, wrap up that call. Now the rest of you, I need a volunteer to go to the engine room. I am sorry, but that is a one way trip. There is a lever in that room, manually operated. There is a spring on it so that if you let go or lose strength, it will spring back up and shut off. It will convert the nuclear engines into a modified nuclear bomb. In short, you are going to go there, and you will be at the epicenter of the blast. Bright white light, then you are gone. I hope you realize that we will forever respect you if you do this, and you won't lose any respect if you choose not to go. Any volunteers?"

There was a moment of silence before a voice spoke up.

" _Ja,_ I will do it." Zwanzig said. This was immediately met with Eins screaming at him, and neunzehn sobbing through the mics. Leonidas shouted for silence.

"It's his choice. Are you sure about this Zwanzig?"

"I am sure. I am already injured and I'm on my last popper. _Vater_ , is this not what mother had done for you, and what _mein Bruder_ and I joined to do? I will go and I will make sure you all escape. Do not waste this chance, for god's sake."

"Aye. To make sure he holds it for the whole time, I am going to go with him. Besides, _Fergus_ is almost broken, so I won't be useful much longer." Tri-deug said. "It's been an honor lads, I'll have a drink in heaven for ye."

"Brother, you know I can't leave you behind alone. If your gun is almost broken, you'll need someone to protect you too. Besides, I can't have you beating me to mother." Aon-deug said with a hearty laugh. Tri-deug laughed as well. Zwanzig spoke up again.

"Brother, father, I want to give you this shot. Please, survive. Survive and kill as many of these creatures as you can for as long as you can. I'll say hi to mum…" he said, choking up briefly. Glynda put her hand over her mouth, tears in her eyes. Seize sighed.

"Well, I think we should stop talking and start acting up soon." Leonidas picked up this hint.

"Alright, men, you have your orders. Understand?"

Seize looked straight at the people on the other side of the screen. "This is run of the mill for us. A bit more casualties than normal, but the point stands. Don't feel too bad for us, we chose this life, fully aware of the consequences. We are going to force our way through. I shall see you all on the other side of this conflict I hope. I'd love to have a drink with you all. I am going to shut down now. And when you see the big fireball, Do not worry, we meant to do that. _Au revoir!_ "

Everybody set upon their missions immediately, retreating back into the ship. Three pulled out an elephant tranquilizer gun and waited patiently. The instant he could, he fired three consecutive rounds into Sautjan's back. The massive man staggered briefly, so Three unloaded the rest of the clip into him, causing him to collapse into the ground. Immediately Dha and Ceithir-Deug jumped between the fallen giant and the onrushing swarm, fighting them off fiercely as Three began dragging him back to the ship. Somehow, Shiwu had gotten in and freed Ten from the crow's nest and managed to get him down to the deck, using a high caliber pistol to take out any Grimm leaping at them. The two of them limped across the deck, getting down into the bomb shelter. Three and Sautjan followed close behind, with Dha and Ceithir coming shortly after. Leonidas, Eins, Neunzehn, Seize, and Ni were all waiting for them, holding the door open. As soon as the last person got in, Leonidas pulled the incredibly thick door shut, activating the mechanism that locked it. A single light bulb flickered on above them and they looked around, strapping themselves into the several point harnesses found throughout the chamber. They shared grim glances at each other and prayed for the three men who were sacrificing themselves for their sake.

In _Flamma_ , the five men within were doing their own preparations for the incoming and Nove brought the tank to a stop fairly near the ship. The Greek triplets quickly started activating the nuclear procedures. Incredibly heavy armor slid out of the sides of the vehicle, quickly fortifying everything. The machine guns withdrew, and _Olympus_ was pulled back and laid across the top, becoming secured and shielded by the armor. Soon even more armor slid out and covered that armor, becoming an impenetrable dome. With the push of a button, four poles drove their way deep into the ground, preventing the machine from being flung away by the shockwave. With all viewports to the outside closed, the five men all strapped in and closed their eyes, beginning a chant meant to soothe the spirits of those that perished, so that the spirits of the three men would have a quick and easy trip.

In Ozpin's office, the headmaster himself was attempting to hand some tissues to Glynda, who was fiercely trying not to cry. Her stubborn professional attitude seemed to be winning, but a simple look into her eyes would tell any observer all they need to know about the normally stoic teacher. Her eyes conveyed the grief that came with hearing a child reassuring their father and brother on his way to a suicide mission. She had heard veteran hunters sometimes say that kind of a thing to their family members, but it was something else entirely to hear coming from a teenager's mouth. This whole event was shaking her, more than she liked to think. Ozpin was much more professional. He had taken notes when Seize was describing the team, and he was mentally designing a shrine for those who perished during this fight. This was a crazy time. People falling from other worlds, fighting for their life, and teenagers willingly sacrificing their lives to activate a weapon of mass destruction. He sighed and rubbed his forehead, praying to Oum.

General Ironwood was impressed with these other-worlders. They seemed to have an incredibly firm bond with each other, one that he knew could only come from the forge of battle. He was astounded that not just one, but three soldiers all offered to willingly end their lives in order to save the rest of their friends. He wished that all of his soldiers would be willing to make the same types of decisions that these men were able to without a second thought. Already he was thinking of new disciplinary training courses to strengthen the minds of his soldiers. However, the thing that caused him the most distress and interest at the same time was this massive weapon they were going to be using. He was greatly intrigued, but something like that he knew they were not likely to give away easily. However, a weapon that large would be incredibly useful in clearing out Grimm and protecting the city. Yet a sinking feeling in his heart knew that the council would try to hijack it. So he resolved to help protect these strangers from the political battlefield. He clasped his hands together and hoped for their survival through this ordeal.

The commander of the rescue operation could not believe what he was hearing from Ironwood. They were only to fight on another ten miles, but no further than that or else they would be wiped out. Wiped out? By what? The general did not say, as even he did not entirely know. All he knew was that there is going to be a massive explosion, unsafe for up to twenty miles. The people would apparently survive the explosion and immediately start rushing for them as soon as possible. He surveyed his army that he was leading. They were suffering from casualties, but their forces were holding strong. All he hoped was that the General was going to be correct and they could get out of here really soon.

Zwanzig, Aon-deug and Tri-deug all rushed back to the ship to begin their final act. Aon and tri were grinning from ear to ear as they ran ahead of Zwanzig, the burly Scots smashing through the Grimm that were now swarming over the entire ship. The horizon had darkened, the cloud of airborne grimm blotting out the sky as far as the eye could see. It was as if a curtain was drawing closed on this act of a massive play. Zwanzig allowed himself a small smile. 'This really is like some sort of fantasy novel,' he thought, 'well, better let my part in the story be important.' They kept pushing their way through the monsters. Nevermores sent a barrage of feathers down at the ship, not caring if they fell their grimm brethren. Several feathers came dangerously close to hitting the three light specks in the black whorl. They fought harder than they had before, making sure to pump poppers into their bodies at every opportunity. After a solid ten minutes, they had forced their way into the narrow halls leading to the engine room. They sprinted as fast as they could down the hall, Zwanzig ahead of the two brutes, trying to get there as quickly as possible. They came into the engine room, slightly disturbed by the quiet ambience in the room, which was usually bustling with automated energy. Immediately the scots began barricading the door shut, not knowing how long it would take for the Grimm to tear through it. Zwanzig approached the lever attached to the wall, simply labeled "Pull down for big boom". He chuckled at Three's antics.

"Well boys, this is it. End of the line. This lever will put us either on the highway to hell or the stairway to heaven. So, if you have any regrets, I'm opening a confessional," he laughed as he gripped the rubber handle firmly, ignoring the bangs of the Grimm against the locked door. His palms were sweating, so he rubbed them against his pants before gripping it again. He took a deep breath in and pulled it down, the room surging to life. As things started to spark and spin faster, he turned to the men, and gave them a smirk. "Well gentlemen, do you know the definition of 'Rapture?' It means 'a feeling of intense pleasure or joy'." He lifted a bottle of alcohol he had grabbed as he had run past the deck. "Hopefully, with this sacrifice, we can bring rapture to our friends and brothers in arms. Bring rapture to the world as a whole by eliminating a huge chunk of these unholy creatures. Bring rapture to future generations with tales of our bravery. For rapture to all!" He shouted, raising his bottle. The two men with him both pumped their fists into the air with a hearty cheer. Then he cleared his throat and started to sing a snippet of a song he had discovered the day prior.

"Rise, Rapture rise, We turn our hopes up to the skies, Rise, Rapture rise, We'll go down with our sinking paradise…"

The whirring grew louder, the machinery became more unstable, the creatures began to tear through the blocked up door. And over all the chaos, the voices of the three men rang out. In an unexplained event everywhere around Remnant, the civilians could swear that that day that they could hear three teenage voices ringing through heaven, striking them with heavy emotion. In Beacon, a small black and red clad warrior clung to her blonde sister, suddenly struck by a heavy wave of emotion. In Ozpin's office, he closed his eyes and folded his hands as a single tear rolled down Glynda's cheek. In Ironwood's command room, the general sighed and bowed his head. In the vault and tank, the remaining Ticks gave quiet prayers, knowing what was coming next. The commander of the rescue force felt a sudden chill go up his spine as he felt the ghostly lyrics linger through his ears. A certain thief and his compatriot looked at each other and smiled, enjoying the haunting lyrics. At that moment, everybody knew that something bigger than they had ever witnessed was about to happen.

" _Rise, Rapture rise, We turn our hopes up to the skies. Rise, Rapture rise, we'll go down with our sinking paradise…."_

There was a worldwide moment of absolute stillness. No one dared breathe. All of the grimm paused, their hunger for destruction was overwhelmed for a single moment by a single feeling. Dread. The whole world paused for a split second. In that moment, Zwanzig whispered his last words in his life.

"Auf Wiedersehen…"

Then there was a blinding light and a deafening noise.

Now, atomic explosions are not something to be trifled with, and for good reason. However, the structure of atomic blasts was one of the few things that held Three's interest for a long time. As it was, he was probably not the ideal candidate to bring a demonstration of the sheer destruction the smallest particles of matter could wreak. Especially not to a world where such technology couldn't even be imagined.

As such, there was not a single pair of clean pants found in any area where the explosion could be seen.

To the rescue squad, who had successfully pushed an extra five miles in that time, they saw the blast first. All of them, even the grimm, stopped fighting to see the glowing sun on the horizon. Only to realize that it was no sun. It was a massive fireball, growing rapidly. Being in a large, flat area with no trees, the blast was clearly seen. Those with binoculars instantly dropped them, the brightness too bright for anyone to handle. They watched in horror as an explosion larger than anything they could imagine rose up over the distance, steadily growing taller.

Then they heard the rumbling.

It started off low, sounding more like a vibration than an actual sound. It continually grew louder and louder, becoming more and more noticeable. The ground actually began shaking, throwing several grimm and soldiers off balance.

Then the shockwave hit.

Y'see, Three is infamous for making ridiculously powerful weaponry, and this was no exception. Any grimm within five miles of the blast were instantly obliterated, along with a massive bowl-shaped crater instantly appearing under the tank and vault. The two containers had somehow been built to mitigate the intense heat and pressure one could only find within the core of such a blast. The grimm were not so lucky. Those within the five mile radius were instantly dissolved in the intense instant of the blast. Those who were not vaporized in the next several miles were subject to instantly lethal radioactivity. Those further from that were subject to the immense pressure coming from the shockwave of the explosion. The radioactivity launched into the atmosphere circled in the maelstrom of nevermores, poisoning them severely. The wind was fortunately blowing away from any civilisation, meaning that the fallout from the blast would simply go further into the forsaken lands. However, the shockwave was not nearly as affected by the weather as the radiation was. It spread indiscriminately in all directions. The loose soil was kicked up into the air by the blast, causing a massive dust cloud to begin spreading outwards. Any grimm caught by it were sent flying. Any flying monstrosities were sent to earth by the invisible hand. Goliaths braced hard, smaller creatures battering their bodies before they themselves were flung away. So the rescue squad were witnessed to the terrifying sight of grimm of all kinds being flung about, dying the instant they hit the ground. The commander shouted a simple command which was immediately followed by all soldiers.

"HIT THE DECK!"

No sooner had the last of the regular soldiers fallen onto their stomachs that the intense winds smashed into their bodies, toppling the paladins. The grimm were knocked back as well, not being intelligent enough to get low like their human opponents.

And the massive clock above Ozpin's office clicked into position.

The third hour had passed.

And a yet another record was broken that day.

 **Well hello again, back with another disclaimer thing.**

 **I do not care if what I wrote in regards to the nuclear blast was inaccurate to nuclear blasts everywhere. I am not a nuclear scientist. Nor am I a war buff. IT'S FICTION!**

 **So if ya don't like how I wrote it, too bad.**

 **I'm just trying to cover my bases.**

As it was, the nuclear blast had ended up obliterating the communications between Ironwood and the rescue team, Which the General promptly alerted Ozpin to. Now they were in the dark about the results of the blast, and Ironwood did not like being in the dark. He was pacing back and forth in front of the camera as Ozpin watched him tiredly.

"James, relax, please. It won't do you any good if you keep pacing like that. Go and relax, I am sure that they will contact you as soon as they are able, so don't worry. You need to be fresh when your men return. So please, relax. I think we all should." He rubbed his neck, sipping more coffee. Glynda nodded and decided to take her leave from the room, nodding to Ozpin as she left. Ironwood groaned, but he knew that Ozpin was right. He needed to rest before he met with both his men and the new men. After hearing what their weapon could supposedly do, he knew he had so many questions to ask them.

"Alright, I think we can end this call. They have beaten the record now, I will call you when they get back." He said, facing the screen once more.

"Understood General. Until then."

Once everything was quiet outside, the men in the vault unstrapped themselves. They all looked at each other, and then at Three. He immediately knew what they were going to ask.

"Alright guys. Yes it is safe to go out, but keep in mind that safe means you won't instantly die. There is still a ton of radiation out there that will make you guys sick depending on your level of exposure. Understood?" All of the men nodded at this before facing Leonidas.

"Men, listen close. Make sure you have enough poppers for what is going to come next. We are going to get Sautjan and Ten into _Flamma_ , seeing as one is unconscious, and the other can not run. Then we shall run alongside the tank in the direction of the army sent to rescue us. They are at least twenty miles away, maybe more. The poppers should keep you going long enough, but if you start to get low, hop onto the tank. We can't have you men passing out on foot, can we? This is going to be harsh, but we must take advantage of the huge, clear area the explosion made for us. Now move out!" He shouted, slamming the door open.

Everyone rushed out, Dha- and Ceithir rushing to drag Sautjan over to the now normalized _Flamma_ , no longer in its protective dome form. Shortly behind them, Shiwu was pulling Ten along. Tessera opened the hatch on top and motioned for them to hurry. The ground around everyone was blasted clear and smoking, with everyone sitting in the bottom of a massive crater. As soon as the man mountain and disabled sniper were loaded into the spare space of the machine of war, everyone began rushing towards the slope that led out of the crater. The men on foot all quickly injected a popper into them before running up the slope, not even having to stop to rest. They made it to the lip of the crater in record time, yet they could not match the sheer power that drove _Flamma_. Despite being bashed and beaten continuously, driving and firing weapons for three hours straight, the fuel sources were still enough to power up the slope faster than the men could run. When they cleared the ridge, they looked at Leonidas, who pointed in the certain direction that they needed to run. Seeing the dark line of grimm on the horizon, the men sighed before they began their long sprint.

The party poppers that Three had so painstakingly created were miraculous things. However, the one thing running through the heads of all of the runners was the knowledge that they may not survive the crash inevitable to come. Doing such strenuous work for so long meant that the physical exhaustion of doing all of the things they did in those three hours would hit them all at once, and some of them wondered if their heart would just give up when they were finally safe, unable to take it anymore. That thought terrified many of them to the point that they wondered if they should continue taking the poppers until the end of time to prolong it. They knew that it would be incredibly unsafe to do that, so they conceded that this might just be the end of the line for them. With steely resolve, they kept running as fast as they could. The operators of _Flamma_ were not so concerned about the aftereffects of the poppers, seeing as they really did not need them as the others did. They were, however, concerned with sautjan, seeing as he is going to have one hell of a crash when the poppers and tranquilizer wore off. They knew from past experiences that the tranquilizers froze the timer on the poppers. So they knew that when he woke up, he would have however much time was left before the poppers wore off, then he would likely pass out instantly. One of them always kept their eye on him, so the instant he comes out of the coma they could eject him from the tank. They did not want an uncontrollable Sautjan inside of a metal container like this. They kept driving on pace with the runners, in case one or more needed to hop on. They knew that they could reach the edge of the Grimm lines in a manner of minutes if everybody had hopped on, but everyone was following Leonidas's orders to run. Such was the loyalty of the Ticks.

After maybe a half hour of running, the line of soldiers met the horde of grimm in an explosion of violence. They all hopped onto _Flamma_ to avoid being destroyed by the flamethrowers on the bottom. Most of the machine guns had been disabled, so they were able to hang out there, so long as they ducked whenever the _Olympus_ cannon swiveled overhead. The ground shook every time the cannon blasted another hole in the swarm of flying grimm. Eins was in the front, clearing the path of Grimm with his faithful _Meistersinger_ , while the rest stuck to the sides, fighting off the creatures that came from the sides to try and mount the swiftly moving vehicle. Three had actually pulled Ten out of the cockpit, having him sit on the back of _Flamma_ with _Victoria_ , taking potshots at the grimm, still managing to land headshot after headshot without his eye. Sure he could swap sides and actually aim with his other eye, but he knew that the recoil would obliterate his already injured shoulder. Meanwhile, Three had taken his spot in the cockpit, reaching around the workers to repair the tank as they kept driving. Leonidas had actually finally pulled out his weapon of choice. It was a rather large Railgun, simply named _Sparta_ to keep with his theme. It was a weapon feared by all who fought the Ticks for its sheer firepower. Smirking, he loaded another iron projectile into it and flipped the charging switch. When the weapon crackled with latent energy, he aimed. A column of Goliaths were all charging in single file through the other Grimm in an effort to reach this most elusive prey. Giving off a shout of defiance, Leonidas pulled the trigger, sending the humming projectile at the column. It shot entirely through the first Goliath with ease, then the second, then it seemed to lose some momentum after passing out the back of the third, but still had enough force to shatter the skull of the fourth one and embed the explosive projectile into the creature's brain. Then the shot exploded, obliterating the nearby grimm as well. Laughing in glee, Leonidas began charging up a second shot, thinking that they may yet make it through.

And so the clock in Ironwood's office showed that three hours and forty-five minutes had passed.

Once the army had recovered from the intense shock wave with which their communications had been destroyed, they scrambled around in an effort to get back on track. The forces kept fighting hard on the front, the area behind them cleared of Grimm. They decided after that show of power, they were going to hang back and let the men come to them. If that was what they were used to, the commander decided they would gladly stay out of their way. So they set out to create a semi permanent base of operations so that the soldiers could have a clear shot to the rescue beaches. He came over to the area where some of his men were trying to reestablish communications with General Ironwood. After questioning them how it was going, to which a hesitant reply was given, he moved on. It wasn't until a shout from the technology crew called him over that his face brightened. He rushed over.

"What is going on?"

"Sir! We have picked them up on our scanners! They are now only ten miles out! They have almost reached us!"

"Sir! Over here!" This voice belonged to the men in the communications area.

"What is it?"

"Sir! We have reestablished connection and are calling up Ironwood right now!"

"Excellent work men! For those of you out there on the lines, give it all you've got! We are going to be getting out of here really soon!"

Ozpin stirred back to normal when his scroll started buzzing. He quickly brought Ironwood's face up in front of him. "I assume you have become connected back to your force now?" He said.

"Yes Ozpin. We have reconnected. As it turns out, the two groups are merely ten miles apart, and closing rather quickly. I would recommend you hop on a transport to Atlas soon, as I think these newcomers will be arriving within my borders in the next few hours."

Ozpin nodded. "Alright. I will be coming there shortly." he said, shutting down the call. After calling up GLynda and informing where he was going, he got the expected request to come along with him. He sighed and agreed that she could come. The two of them met in front of the landing pad as a personal Bullhead landed. They boarded and began the long flight to Atlas.

When they were five miles apart, the hatch opened up on _Flamma_ , And Pente poked his head out.

"Clear out of the way! Sautjan is waking up from the tranquilizers and he is about to be let loose again!"

Immediately, all Ticks near the hatch moved away as Sautjan groggily climbed through, gripping _Bonecrusher_ in both hands. After shaking his head, he let out a bellowing roar that was heard by the Atlesian forces before charging back into the fray, vanishing from sight. The Ticks knew he was pushing ahead, seeing as the grimm suddenly started parting before the tank as Sautjan smashed monster after monster aside.

The Atlesian forces heard the roared challenge and were afraid, even more so as they saw Grimm flying side to side. The men started to panic as the source of the flying became closer and closer, accompanied by the occasional earthshaking boom of the cannon. The commander commanded all of the soldiers to stand firm and hold on. It kept getting closer and closer, the grimm actually starting to flee before it. Eventually it reached the soldiers, but stopped right in front of them. The sudden appearance of Sautjan, an extremely tall, extremely buff man looming over them while gripping a hammer bigger than most of the soldiers was enough to send most of the men stumbling back in shock. He stood there panting for a while. He looked down at the men as his skin color returned to normal and his eyes rolled back to the front of his head. He looked down at them and grinned.

"Puny men… here to save us… Heh…. þakka þér." he said before the drugs coursing through his system ran out and he collapsed. Immediately the commander ordered several soldiers to grab him and his hammer to put them in a medical carrier. As the soldiers scurried to do so, he looked at the tank, which had just arrived with cheers and whoops from all on board. He quickly strode up to the vehicle and exchanged pleasantries with Leonidas, who had hopped off to greet him.

"Well commander, it's your show now." he said with a grin as he watched Ten and Three get loaded into the medical carrier. Going into the second medical carrier was Shiwu, who had his leg hit by a random Nevermore feather, shattering his bone. Following shiwu was Dha-deug, who was carrying an unconscious Seize. The French fool had forgotten to duck at one point when the cannon had swung around, knocking him unconscious. It was only the Scot's quick action that prevented the diplomat from becoming Grimm chow. The rest of the combatants minus the five in the tank all quickly got into their own medical carriers as the military rapidly pulled down and packed up their temporary structures. With all of the men secured and _Flamma_ in the middle, the convoy set off for the beaches as quick as they could, desperately racing the tide of Grimm. When they finally reached the beaches, they found a large squadron of airships there fighting off the Grimm behind them. The men and carriers piled on as fast as humanly possible, taking off towards atlas.

And so, after four and a half hours, the Ticks finally left the forsaken lands, shattering all previous records.

 **CHAPTER ONE IS COMPLETED!**

 **You have no idea how hard it was for me to keep writing this and not break it into several chapters. This is by far and away the longest chapter I have ever written, and I think it is even longer than any previous story I have written. So please, give feedback. I want, no, need feedback if I am going to delve once more into this story. Writing this took so much effort for me, I want to know how I did! Should I continue? You decide!**

 **RIP:**

 **Sem**

 **Muoi Tam**

 **Zwanzig**

 **Aon-deug**

 **Tri-deug**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well.**

 **I am here for another installment in this story. Since I really enjoyed writing that chapter, I am going to continue it. To those who have already put notifications on when this story updates, Thanks! I appreciate knowing that even if people don't physically let me know, they still can not wait for another part of the story. So yeah! That's my side of this whole detail.**

 **Once more, I don't own anything Rwby. My Ticks are mine. I also do not own any songs or anything else I reference. There will be a couple of those. Also, this chapter is going to contain descriptions of the survivors. I accidentally forgot those last time.**

 **Anyways, this chapter is going to largely focus on the period of time after the incident and its effects on everyone impacted. Let's get going!**

 **,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.**

Well, they had made it to Atlas, after a long, silent flight. Almost every single Tick was unconscious, with only a few exceptions. Those exceptions were Tessera, Pente, Exi, Otto, and Nove. All five of them sat in a Bullhead together, not making eye contact. They were visibly distressed despite having had a fairly easy time in the fierce legendary battle, having been in the nigh impenetrable _Flamma_. Said tank was firmly secured in the same bullhead as them, and Nove would get up and check out his baby, running his hands across it and whispering to it. He would say things like "papa's gonna fix you up…" or "It's ok baby…", which undoubtedly unnerved several of the Atlas personnel on that specific bullhead. None of the personnel knew what to do with these five men. So they simply kept their distance from these men, seeing them almost as monsters to have been able to survive for so long in the forsaken lands, not to mention the terror the nuclear bomb imprinted on them all.

Tessera's mind was occupied with the safety of the other Ticks. He personally had never tried a popper before, but he had heard the tales of what happened from his other crew mates. He knew that they were not something safe, and feared what might happen to his friends if any of them overdosed. Over time, his squad of twenty one people had become like a second family to him. He and the other two Greeks had had a difficult childhood, so finding good friends like the ones in the Ticks was a godsend. He had often thought about the crew as a big family, with Leonidas as the father and Eins as the mother, though he would never say that out loud. He ran a hand through his black hair cut short and closed his blue eyes. This whole reverting to teenagers things was weird for all of them. Suddenly becoming the same age as the father figure in his life was absolutely ridiculous. He clenched his fists. Working in the tank, while not strenuous, did require a certain degree of flexibility so they could all reach around each other and not get in the way. This had meant that there were three body types in the Ticks. There was the Tankies, the Bruties, and the Beauties. Being a tankie meant that he had a slim build, while not being bony. They could easily be compared to gymnasts, seeing as the inside of the tank was always an acrobatic show in battle. The outside may have been steady, calm, and death dealing, but the inside was always a squirming mass of unspoken orders. He who controlled _Olympus_ determined the movements of the other bodies, as the metal seat would swivel with the cannon. However, the age revert had sent them back to the bodies they had at seventeen. This meant Tessera was a measly five foot two. He had had a late growth spurt, shooting up to six foot three by the time he was twenty. This extra space had left plenty of room in the tank for the other, less shrunken people.

Pente was thinking about Tessera. His brother had always been one to worry about the safety of the others in this large "family". So this situation was undoubtedly going to impact him heavily. The losses had hit him hard when they were fighting, but the new, patient wait to see who survived had to be demolishing him on the inside. So Pente was worried. He was often joked about being the overprotective sister of the triplets, not only because of his considerable care for the other two brothers, but because of his long black hair. That, combined with a more feminine facial structure and his Tankie body had resulted in him being able to pass off as a flat chested girl with the right outfit. He blinked his own blue eyes as they flicked over to the body of the third triplet, who had always been the hardest to read. Despite being a triplet, he had always been very very tight lipped about everything. There were secrets upon secrets that he had heard and never told. Yet his gaze softened when he saw the silent tear rolling down his final brother's cheek.

Exi was never one to be overly emotional, but these last few hours had been extremely difficult on him. The only reason any tear had escaped was a simple one, and it had something to do with one of his deepest secrets. Not a single person knew about this fact, but Exi was gay. He had not told anyone in his family, old or new. Ever since he had joined the Ticks, he had had a deep crush on one of the other members of the crew, who was more openly gay. Aon-deug had made it clear to everyone on his first week of joining that he was gay, and he would blow up anyone who took offense to that. Exi had always admired his courage to be able to do that, and had since then always wished to be able to announce that the same way. Yet whenever he would try to say anything to Aon or anyone else, he would back down with crippling fear. So to avoid any more of that kind of stress, he stayed silent. Yet after the most recent mission, Exi and Aon had saved each other's lives on numerous occasions, inspiring him to attempt once more. He was going to talk to Aon and confess his feelings towards the other man when they got back to the base, but had never gotten the opportunity, what with the sudden assault and what not. In combat, he had decided to confess after they had all escaped this terror, but then… Aon had gone and died on him. The regrets weighed heavily on his soul. And so the tears flowed one at a time, from impassive blue eyes.

Meanwhile, Otto was concerned for his friend Nove. The man had an almost unhealthy obsession with _Flamma_ and the level of destruction applied to the tank had to have been devastating. He knew that wherever and whatever they went and did next, _Flamma_ would have to be there with them. The level of love between man and machine was enough to make Otto want to mess up his well groomed dark brown hair, though he'd never bring himself to do that. Seriously, he cared for his hair as much as Yang did. His body was the largest of the Tankies, and very well built. He really prided himself on his looks, something that made him the subject of relentless mockery by everyone except for Seize, who truly understood the importance of looking good. He was wondering what would actually happen to the Ticks when they got to… wherever they were going. Needless to say, he was worried, but would make sure to be by Nove's side in the future. Especially to help him maybe eventually part ways with _Flamma_.

Nove, meanwhile, was figuring how to fix up _Flamma_. He knew that the tank was fixable, and he would fix his baby. He had first begun treating _Flamma_ like his child shortly after it had protected him and Otto from a three day bombardment in the alps. At first it had been a joke, but then it became such a habit that it ultimately stuck and he took it seriously. Seeing how everyone would take such great care of their equipment and weaponry, but no one would care for _Flamma_ with the same respect left Nove severely disappointed. This was the weapon that everyone needed. So he made it his mission to make sure the tank was in pristine condition at all times. Seeing it in such a state of disrepair brought an almost physical pain to his chest. He knew he could fix it. He just needed the time and materials to bring his baby back.

"It's gonna be alright baby…."

…..

The arrival to Atlas was one with no decorum, but all bustle. The injured members were immediately sent to the infirmary, while the conscious five took _Flamma_ to a secure warehouse. Then the security forces at the military base they had landed at came to take the five members in for questioning. Ironwood had lots and lots of questions for these boys- men. If the one was to be believed, all of these boys are actually men. He wanted to know as much as he possibly could about these men, where they came from, their weapons, everything possible. He had sent a squadron of ten guys to escort them, two for each, to the designated questioning rooms.

The problem came when they tried to get Nove to leave his "baby" alone in the warehouse.

Despite the promises that it was safe, the promises to keep a constant set of guards to watch over it, and even the threats of physical force to him, he refused to leave it. So, to avoid any more conflict, Ironwood himself came down and told the guards that he would question Nove in the room with _Flamma_ in it. With that matter settled, the others all left for their rooms. Nove stared at Ironwood, while Ironwood stared back at him.

"Well, _generale_? I'm here. Questions?" He said, crossing his arms as he leaned up against the mighty tank.

"Right. Who are you, and where are you from?" A simple start. Ironwood would ask these questions to all the men to make sure their stories all matched. Nove nodded.

"My name is Nove. I come from the city of Rome, in the nation of Italy, on the continent Europe, on the planet Earth. I understand Seize has… explained the peculiar situation. That is, if you were the person on the other side of that telephone call. My name means 'nine' in my home language, as the system we have goes."

Ironwood nodded. So far, one story matched. "I was told you are not actually all seventeen. How old were you?"

Nove shook his head tiredly. "I do not quite get the situation entirely myself. I am- was i guess- twenty-four. I figure I can guess what your next few questions are going to be. 'How did you join this group? What position do you hold? What is your relationship with your leader? What the hell is the thing behind you? Well, buckle up, _mio amico_. You're gonna get more than you bargained for."

Ironwood gulped nervously. This was going to be a long day, he could tell already.

….

Ironwood had spent nearly an hour in the room with Nove, learning more about the tank and the weapons and what Nove did with the tank. He had received two different tours of the machine, and had to sit through Nove's photo album of him and _Flamma_ around the world. The talk was… enlightening. The technology was certainly something interesting, and after hearing how _Flamma_ was one of the main reasons they had survived out there for so long, he decided the massive gun on top was not just for show. However, he did not nearly get enough information about the group themselves to suit his needs. He rubbed his temples before walking into the next room that held a Tick member. He almost felt the need to call Qrow up just so he could steal his flask.

….

In the medical ward of the military base, the medical staff were desperately treating the unconscious members. They were all shocked to discover that their Auras were not unlocked, and so they decided that they should activate them to give the boys the best chance of living. They had not been briefed on the backstory of these kids, so they just saw them as a group of several teenagers who had somehow been pulled out of the forsaken lands. To survive in the forsaken lands with no aura took a lot of skill, but there were no records for any of the names given to them by Ironwood. They had simply appeared. In the separated med bays, a team of experienced doctors placed their hands on the unconscious people's heads and spoke the required words.

" _For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."_

The boys' auras had… various reactions to this.

…..

The doctor who was unlocking Leonidas's aura stepped forward to do the brief ceremony. If the reports were correct, this kid was the leader of the group that had been extracted. Though the doctor did not know what he looked like prior to arriving on remnant, he could almost see what he would end up looking like. The current chestnut brown hair was slightly shaggy, and the faint wisps of a beard were visible on his chin. He definitely held the 'brutie' body type, ridiculously well muscled for a teenager. However, the muscles scaled well with the rest of his 5 foot 9 body. The doctor shook his head to try and clear the image of a tall, proud man from his mind as he placed his hands on Leonidas's forehead. He spoke the famous words required.

Now, it is known that unlocking someone's aura takes more out of the unlocker, based on the aura of the person being unlocked. So it was a shock to all medical staff in that specific room when the doctor's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he dropped to the floor like a sack of rocks. After quickly checking his pulse and settling him somewhere comfy and safe to recover, they look back at Leonidas, whose aura was now glowing around him. It was red, a shade of crimson the color of blood. It glowed incredibly bright for a few seconds then faded. The nurses all looked at each other. Just who had they pulled from the forsaken lands?

…...

It was a female in charge of unlocking Eins's aura. She looked down at the unconscious teen, unaware she was looking at a forty-something year old man. She had to admit that the young teen had some sort of militaristic charm about him, with the close cropped blonde hair and the well tanned muscular body. He was larger in stature than Leonidas was, with a couple of inches and pounds over the leader. The only feature marring his face was the jagged scar that ran from the upper left forehead to his ear. The doctor wondered to herself what kind of hardship this boy had one through and when to get that mark.

When she placed her hands on his forehead to say the designated words, she was not expecting what came next. The usual drain of aura came along with the glow of the boy's temporarily visible aura. However, his aura was strange, almost as if there was something wrong with it. Instead of being a glow across his whole body, it only glowed surrounding the kid's head and chest as if it were a helmet and chestplate. Yet those areas were glowing with an abnormal amount of navy blue light. The doctor quickly sketched out the locations before it faded and wrote down several notes before going and sitting down. What happened?

…..

Next up was Ni. The doctor in charge was a fresh graduate out of a doctor's academy. He looked over the kid before him, only a few years younger than himself. He took note of the peculiarly slanted eyes and straight, smooth black hair. He was a very lean man, obviously meant more for agility than brute force, yet the tightness of his muscles told the doctor that he could definitely pack a punch. The doctor gulped, placing his hands on Ni's forehead and recited the words.

Only to immediately jump back as the glow of aura around Ni separated and floated above his body as a silhouette of the body. Then it promptly faded. He quickly wrote down what he saw. _Aura color: black. Aura seemed to separate from body. Unknown cause._ He sighed. What a way to become a doctor.

…..

The doctor for Three had more pressing matters than unlocking the aura to attend to. He ended up removing the hastily wrapped bandage from the stump of his shoulder. He investigated the wound closely and quickly began remedying the situation with some stitches and sutures. As soon as the wound was closed and bandaged, he took a deep breath. He gave himself a moment to get ready, and used that moment to take a look at the injured kid. The thin, wiry boy with the very short… blue? Yes, blue hair. He pushed the goggles upwards, then he placed his hands on the forehead of Three and got ready to give the rite.

As soon as the last word left his lips, he stepped back. Then he tilted his head as he watched as something peculiar happened to the man's aura. His aura glowed a neon blue, but seemed to fluctuate like the surface of the sun, flaring out in great arcs before it faded again. He rubbed his eyes but still jotted the notes on that appearance down. This was just too weird for him.

….

Next in the hospital beds was Ten. This doctor certainly was having one of the most stressful days of her year. She of course had to get the man with several impaled limbs, a lost eye, and a couple ruptured organs as well. That's not counting the several broken bones all around. This led her to take forever before going to unlock his aura. She felt a bit bad for the kid, after all, he had no guarantees that he was going to walk again, and his one eye was gone for certain. She removed his hat and brushed some of his spiky blond hair away from his forehead. He looked a lot like her son, now that she thought about it. She placed her hands on his forehead and spoke the words required.

When she stepped back to observe his aura, it was a lovely shade of purple, yet it didn't follow the contours of his body. It expanded around him, and after closer inspection, she realized it was in the shape of an eye. This was only cemented when the center portion of the glow, where a pupil would be, turned black, before the whole thing faded away. A little shocked by this, she looked at one of the other staff there.

"You saw that too?"

….

The doctor working on Dha-deug was getting nervous. The large, muscular brute was brought in quickly, and he immediately began checking him for injuries. Having patched up the few external injuries visible, he checked the status of his internal organs. And what he found was disturbing indeed.

He was not sure how the scotsman had survived this far. There was such an abundance of the popper drug in his system, that it had actually caused a couple of the chambers of his heart to rupture. Not only that, but blood vessels everywhere had collapsed and ruptured as well. He had no time to do the aura ceremony, as he needed to save this kid's life. He rushed him to the nearest operating room, desperate to do something, anything for this guy. No kid deserved to die at this age from a catastrophic circulatory failure. That kind of death was a highly unpleasant one, but he had no idea if he would make it in time.

…..

Ceithir-Deug was brought into his hospital room and laid down on the bed that was there. The doctor took a moment to examine his body closely, noticing the several claw marks all over him. After neatly bandaging the huge bite mark on his left shoulder, she placed her hands on his forehead and spoke the needed rite. Something uniquely particular happened to his aura when it briefly became visible.

It started out normal, A regular glow of greenish shade. Then some orange started bleeding in and mixed, along with some purple. It all blended together, forming a murky brown, and just before fading, a light tan was seen beginning to creep in on the edges. She tilted her head. She didn't think people could have more than one aura color or have the color change. This was all a bit weird...

…..

Shiwu had been brought to the medical ward quickly. The emergency staff had rapidly bandaged the wound in his leg, binding it tight and neat. The nevermore feather had managed to pierce through his flesh, shatter the femur, and stick out the other side. Yet aside from that one injury, he seemed to be mostly unharmed, which caused the staff to sigh in relief. The chief examiner of the group walked forward and placed his hands on Shiwu's forehead, reciting the well known chant.

When it was done, he stepped back. Yet for some reason, the aura was not lighting up like it should. Upon closer examination, they saw a slight distortion around him where the aura should be. When the examiner had reached forward to try and touch Shiwu, his hand was stopped by some invisible force, and he felt a sensation on his skin similar to that of a horde of millipedes crawling over it.

"A clear aura that works, albeit strangely, even when unconscious? Who is this man?" the doc muttered.

….

Next came Seize's turn. Now this group of doctors were very concerned with the state of his head. The growing contusion on the back of it was not the greatest concern. Instead it was the fractured skull that was the most nerve wracking. After cutting open the back of his head, they pulled the skull fragments out of the brain matter as gently as they could. After grafting some new bone in place and trying to make sure everything is alright, they moved on to unlocking his aura. A new nurse volunteered to do it, and the doctor decided to allow her to do so. When she stepped forward, she rubbed her hands together with the briefest flash of a lecherous grin, unnoticed by the rest of the med staff. In her eyes, the tall kid was quite the looker in a dignified manner. She had seen the rest of the men and he looked far and away the most put together of them. She had plans for later… but for now she had to unlock his aura. She placed her hands on his forehead and spoke the words confidently.

Then she almost immediately staggered back. This boy had a lot of aura, and it felt weird as well. The feeling was matched by the weird event that had happened next. Starting right at his heart, a ring of pink glow rippled outwards, followed by a second one a second later. This went on a couple times before the colorful glows faded. The staff all looked at one another, before looking at the nurse in confusion. When she looked back at them, her face matched all of theirs: utter confusion.

…

Poor, poor Sautjan. The medical staff really had no idea what to do with him. First off, his feet hung off the surgery table by a couple inches. Nobody really had to treat a man of his impressive musculature or stature before, so the surgery squad had to fumble around with assorted supplies to form a stable base for his feet to rest on as well. Then when that was all settled, they took a look at his injuries and were horrified. Every single tendon had been strained in his legs, arms, torso, and neck. It seemed almost as if they were just the tiniest bit shorter, all of his muscles would have torn right off his body. As it was, they had to immediately leap in and start stitching the muscles back together again so the giant man wouldn't be crippled for life. As this happened, they had to use the defibrillator several times to restart his heart when the feeble beating stopped. Eventually, after almost several hours had passed, his heart was stable enough, and the muscles were sewn back together. After the skin was stitched back up, the head surgeon decided to unlock his aura. He placed his comparatively small hands on the mountain's forehead and spoke the needed verse.

Everybody watched in shocked horror as a cloud of color started glowing. It was a mixture of a dark mahogany and an icy blue color. It started off in a normal compressed form around his body like all aura should, but it began expanding and swirling outwards in a maelstrom. Unlike Ceithir's aura, It was not mixing and melding. Instead the two stayed separated from each other in equal portions. The spirals reached out like the branches of a galaxy, and they caused different effects when each color touched any of the staff present in the room. Where the icy blue colored clouds touched a member, they slowly sank to the floor with dazed smiles on their faces, completely relaxed. On the other hand, the mahogany colored clouds had a very opposite effect. Those that were touched by the darker shade immediately froze up and began trembling, fear overwhelming all cohesive thoughts. It was a primal fear, akin to that a cornered rabbit feels. The doctor overseeing the surgery watched as the clouds faded and the staff returned slowly back to normal. He tapped a message into his scroll, sending it to Ironwood. The general needed to know this immediately.

…..

Neunzehn was the final member to go into surgery. Despite being heavily unconscious, he was twitching and mumbling. After having restrained him so that the teen wouldn't hurt himself on anything nearby, the doctors began treating his nasty wounds. After almost his whole body had been bandaged, the doctor stepped forward to take a look at the poor boy. Despite his face being screwed up in apparent terror, he was a fairly handsome boy. His appearance was strikingly like the other boy brought in, Eins the report said? He wondered if they were brothers or something else like that. He placed his hands on top of the boy's forehead, trying to ignore the flinch the boy made. He took a deep breath before reciting the words he knew by heart.

He stepped back to look at the boy as his aura slowly became visible. A gentle yellow aura surrounded him, looking normal. That is, until a second yellow aura shaped identically to his appeared next to him and gently stroked his face. At the gentle touch, the young boy seemed to calm down greatly, sinking deeper into unconsciousness. The doctor watched on with a gentle gaze, feeling sorry for the poor boy.

….

Ironwood was seated in front of Tessera, the last of the conscious Ticks to be questioned. The others had not been particularly helpful. Otto seemed to give a more calm discussion than his other Italian counterpart, but it was clear his mind was elsewhere. The only new information he had gotten out of the man was the fact that he actually was the one who officially drove the tank, which of the three greeks operated what weapons, and that Three had designed all of the weaponry. Exi was completely silent, only giving Ironwood a look over before focusing on the wall again. Pente was a bit more talkative, but all he really talked about was the battle they had gone through. The different Grimm they saw, which members died and how, and the aftermath of the nuclear blast. This last bit of information caught the general's attention fully, and resulted in the military man's jaw slowly dropping as heard the impossible dimensions of the blast. He shook his head, remembering how casually Pente had talked about that devastating power. He refocused on the questioning at hand. He looked at Tessera.

"Alright, so I need to ask you about this. None of your friends gave me much information on the rest of your crewmates. Seeing as they are unconscious currently, I can not talk to them personally to ask them about themselves. Do you have any information on them you would like to share?" he said, leaning forward and steepling his fingers. Tessera gave him a relieved smile.

"Well, _o fílos mou_ , I am very relieved to hear that they are only unconscious. However, based off of previous experiences, I have a few tips for you on what to do when some of them awake. Sautjan, the massive man… well I fear for him. This will be the first time he awakes without Muoi Tam by his side. This is going to make him very very upset. I would recommend having a small, bubbly person there for your questioning. He will likely bind with them as fast as he can. The sooner he has someone like that to be friends with, the sooner he will cooperate. It's… a quirk of his. He may be monstrous in strength and size, but the biggest part of him is his heart. Most of the rest will likely be fine when they wake up. Ni will likely spout gibberish and try to attack the first person near him for a total of ten seconds before he calms down. The Scotsmen will demand a heavy alcohol. Three will likely take a look around the room and immediately say everything that the doctors and nurses are doing wrong, as well as call out every nervous habit he sees and every visible slight action. Then he will go into heavy speculation about their backgrounds and future motives. He hasn't been wrong yet. And as for Shiwu…. Err…."

The general blinked at the sudden influx of information, but tilted his head when he trailed off after saying Shiwu's name. "What about this… Shiwu man?"

"Well, I hope for your sake, Leonidas wakes up before him or shortly after. As soon as Leo wakes up, send him to Shiwu's room. Shiwu has had a rather… difficult past, which involved heavy torture, drug induced hallucinations of betrayals, and other such incidents. No comrades barring Leonidas, will he trust, and he absolutely will not trust any of your soldiers or doctors. In fact, he will try to kill everyone in the room unless Leonidas is there to say the secret key phrase. None of us know it due to Shiwu's paranoia of betrayal, and no illusions you create will fool him unless it contains the key phrase. And while I hate to admit it, the poor man is fairly justified in his reactions. So I say as soon as he no longer needs direct medical care, get all people out of there and seal off all vents and windows in his vicinity, and remove all potential weapons from his immediate area. Do not, i repeat, do not restrain him to the bed. Do not send in soldiers, no matter how well trained. And as soon as Leonidas wakes up, send him to calm the _paranoïkís kinéziko dolofónos_. If you follow all of these instructions, then you will likely escape with zero casualties. Fail even one of those instructions, and there will be a few deaths in his wake."

General Ironwood narrowed his eyes. "I assure you, my guards are well trained enough to handle one injured man." Tessera grinned.

"I trust you, but Shiwu is much more accomplished than anyone you can send. After escaping a certain maximum security prison, he managed to not only evade a platoon of robotic soldiers hunting for him, along with a squadron of bloodhounds, but he managed to sneak back _into_ the prison, kill the warden, all of the remaining guards, and free all the prisoners, then proceed to escape the prison a second time, evading the robotic soldiers and the bloodhounds a second time, and leave the country through the most heavily populated airport in the country. Now that in and of itself is impressive beyond belief, but he did that all while bleeding out through an infected gut wound he received from a prison shank he received willingly. Now, tell me. Are your soldiers _really_ capable to handle a threat of that magnitude?"

Ironwood's look of shock was impressive. However, he immediately recovered with the most obvious response. "You're bluffing."

Tessera laughed. "Bluffing? I assure you, that is not the case. Ask any of the Ticks, the story is true. And if you don't believe them, perhaps you should ask all of the family members of the guards he had killed, seeing as he went and apologized to every single one of them after he had escaped." He smirked. "Or would you perhaps want to be in the same room as him when he awakens."

Ironwood shook his head and tapped a message in his scroll to the doctors sitting in the room with Shiwu. Shortly after that he received the message from the observer of Sautjan's surgery. His eyebrows slowly raised up as he read on. "What more can you tell me about Sautjan?"

"Sautjan? Why is that? Is something wrong with him?" Tessera leaned forwards anxiously, looking at the general's eyes.

"His aura is showing some incredibly abnormal effects." There was a buzz. "In fact, every single one of your unconscious friends have had something really odd about their aura. However, Sautjan's is most concerning."

"Hold on, back up. Aura? What is that?"

Ironwood sighed. "That's right, you're not from here. Aura is a manifestation of one's soul as a defense. It can heal you and protect you from blows, for a certain amount of time at least. Too many hits will cause it to decrease your aura reserves, until it breaks and you can be injured."

"So… its soul powered armor?"

"Yes, pretty much. When it is awakened, it causes the person to glow a certain color based on their soul. Then it simply fades. However, none of your unconscious friends had that normal event happen. For some reason, all of their auras did something strange. None of those things should have happened at all, and it couldn't be their semblances."

"Semblances?"

"A special ability unique to each individual, such as super speed or growing stronger for each hit you take. Those can only be used when awake though. So in short, do you know anything that could have caused this weird result?"

"Well… I have a theory. Has a nuclear blast ever been seen on remnant before, and therefore, radiation?"

"Nuclear? If you are referring to that massive explosion you had set off, I can assure you we have thankfully never seen such an event. Why?"

"Where we come from, thorough tests of these devices have been made, and there have been several accidents involving them as well. Certainly, one of the most dangerous parts of nuclear energy has to come from the radiation. Three can explain it in much more detail, but the whole idea of radiation is that the atoms that make up everything that becomes irradiated start decaying at a certain pace until it reaches a new stable configuration. The element in nuclear bombs breaks apart, unleashing untold quantities of energy and several neutrons, which destabilize the nearby elements. I suppose that the radiation left over from the blast affected their bodies as they ran through the fallout, causing these oddities. It seems the most logical explanation for it."

"Are we in danger from this 'radiation'?" Ironwood asked urgently, wondering if his men were at risk. "Are there other side effects of this stuff?"

"Well, i wouldn't need to worry about that, _o fílos mou,_ as your men were too far away and the wind blew the fallout farther away. So your men are safe. However, to answer your second question, allow me to show you what radiation can do to people." He reached into his pocket, causing the guards to immediately point their guns at him. He held his one hand up. "ηρέμησε! Dear lord! I'm grabbing my phone." He said, slowly removing the black square device from his pocket. He opened it up, opening the photo album. He quickly pulled up black and white photographs of victims of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl. One of the guards stumbled to the corner and lost his lunch, as the other ones looked just as ill. General Ironwood looked fairly disturbed.

"Does this happen often? This is… horrible…" He said, shocked at the horrific injuries the images had shown. The one that impacted him the most was the one of the poor child, horrifically mutilated beyond recognition.

"More often than it should…" Tessera grimaced. "The first two sets of images were from the only times that these weapons were used in warfare. The third set was from a complete accident that left a whole city uninhabitable for decades. These accidents have happened other times."

"Used in warfare? Against what?"

"Each other." Tessera said simply yet grimly. The room was silent.

"You mean to tell me that people used this against other people?"

"The only difference between the two opposing forces was their nation and ideals. All humans."

Ironwood sat back. He couldn't imagine what drove these armies to use such a devastating weapon on civilians. He shook his head. "How often are these wars waged? Are you at a time of peace?"

Tessera began chuckling. Then the chuckles evolved into full blown laughter. The peals of amusement, while melodic to listen to, gave all others in the room a chill down their spine.

"Stop laughing!" Ironwood shouted, smashing his hand down on the table that sat between them. "What is so amusing about that question?"

"With all due respect sir, not only is it nearly impossible to find peace in any country around the world at any time, but I doubt you can find a period of peace on Earth since it was formed. And even then, the way it formed was a brutal and violent affair. In fact, the lack of peace is our employment. At least, it was when we were still there. We were private contractors. Hired to wage private wars against others. Hopefully you can now see why I found the question of 'a time of peace' laughable."

If it was possible, General Ironwood looked even more shocked. A world constantly at war? That made Remnant seem like a vacation, even with the Grimm. The fact that these men were able to form a complete business off of offering their military might to foreign nations not only spoke of the horror of Earth but also of the veterancy of these soldiers. When he had seen the pictures of Nove with his tank, he never realised that all of them were taken at job spots. A lot was starting to connect together. The logo on the tank, the fact that a group of teenagers blew the previous record in the forsaken lands out of the water, the power behind the weapons locked up in the vault down below, everything was explained. He blinked. Silence reigned over the room. Of course, the silence in the room meant that everybody jumped out of their skins when the alarms started blaring. Ironwood looked down at his scroll.

"That's…. That's the room Shiwu is in…" Ironwood groaned. "Great. I hope Leonidas wakes up soon. I don't feel like losing too many men if what you say is true." He said, rising from the table and walking to the door. Tessera sighed.

" _καλή τύχη σε σας και τη δική σας_ "

"What does that mean?" Ironwood asked, looking back at the greek.

"Best of luck to you and yours." Tessera said with a weak smile.

….

 _At the Atlas base's landing pads…_

A bullhead had just landed down on the pad assigned to it. Fresh from Vale, but with more passengers than Ironwood had originally expected. On an unexpected whim, Qrow had arrived to Beacon university when Ozpin was preparing to head off, and after being informed of the situation, the drunkard immediately demanded he join in. Ozpin had approved of that, much to Glynda's chagrin. As if that wasn't enough to irritate Glynda, Team RWBY had seen Qrow, causing Ruby to rush on over to give him a flying hug. After asking what was going on, Qrow had told them the situation. Glynda was just about ready to smash Qrow into the wall with her semblance at that, but then her rage was redirected to Ozpin when he had asked the team if they wanted to come with them. The excitable first years had, unsurprisingly, immediately accepted the offer. When the riding crop wielding professor whirled on Ozpin to give him her two cents, The man had given her a charming grin and simply replied with:

"A hunch."

So she had no choice but to grab Qrow's flask and down a gulp of the harsh liquor, much to the unlucky man's amusement. The flight was a long one for the blond, so she was the first one to step off of the bullhead and onto the platform at the base.

Only to groan in annoyance at the first noise she heard when she stepped off.

The blaring alarm of the military base.

Of course.

The rest of the group stepped off the bullhead as well. Qrow chuckled as he heard the panicked tramps of feet and shouted orders.

"Sounds like jimmy's good little soldiers are freaking out. I wonder what has gotten their little panties in a twist?"

Ozpin sighed and sipped his coffee. "Well, we should let them got to it. Follow me and stay out of the way." With that, he started off at a brisk pace down the hallway to where he knew Ironwood's office laid.

…..

 _A little while prior…_

Shiwu was not a man to take lightly.

Shiwu was also a man who didn't like not knowing where he was, especially when he just woke up. He also is a man who doesn't like being hooked up to machinery, especially when he just woke up. He _really_ doesn't like being near people in overly clean clothes, especially, _especially_ when he just woke up.

Needless to say, he is not a waking up kind of person. Not a bouncy "Zǎoshang hǎo" kinda guy. Not even a "don't speak until I have coffee" kinda guy.

No, Shiwu was more of a "I'm gonna tear out your voice box if you don't get out of my way" kind of guy when he wakes up. Doubly so when the above negative enforcers all come into play.

So needless to say, when he awoke in a clean white room, with beeping machinery hooked up all over him, and a man who definitely was not Three leaving the room quickly and locking the door, he instantly went into a blind panic. He shot upright in his bed and grabbed his head, taking deep breaths to calm his nerves. He looked around the room, then at the door, where he saw a couple nervous faces looking at him through a barred window. He investigated all of the loose objects in the room. His nightgown, the bed sheets, the mattress, and the pipes attached to him with needles. He rose up and carefully walked to the door before wedging the top of the bed sheet in the tiny gap at the top of the door, allowing it to hang freely down and hide everything from view of the doctors. Then he turned to the rest of the room and rubbed his hands together, thinking of the best way to escape from this room. He sat in the middle and began to meditate.

The doctors outside his room slowly dispersed from the door, leaving one curious doctor and the two guards posted outside his door. The hallway was empty except for those three, making them feel uneasy. The message from General Ironwood had set them all on edge, and they had no ideas on what the mysterious kid was planning. They had no idea of the true potential of the chinese assassin. They heard glass breaking and the light on the other side of the sheet went out. They jumped at the noise and nervously peeked at the darkened sheet. All of a sudden, two holes appeared in the sheet as two of the needles, still attached to the pipes, shot out and impaled themselves right in the jugulars of both guards. On the other side of the cloth, Shiwu exhaled forcefully into the pipes, causing a large bubble of carbon dioxide to form in the blood vessels of the two men, stopping the blood from traveling to the brain, causing both men to have a stroke. The doctor screamed as the two guards struggled briefly before slowly sinking to the floor. He backed up and placed his back against the wall as the needles retracted. He was breathing heavily, frozen in fear. The curtain fell to reveal no one on the other side. Suddenly a shard of glass flew out with perfect accuracy and opened up a gash on the poor doctor's throat. He clutched his throat desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood. Shiwu appeared at the window and flung one of the needles and pipes, but this time the needle was curved. It hooked onto his belt, and a quick jerk flung the doctor right up against the door. Shiwu reached through and gripped the front of the labcoat, lifting him up so they were face to face.

"Key. _Xiànzài._ " He said. The doctor gurgled incoherently before pointing at the guard on the right. Shiwu sighed, stuck a blade of glass between his middle and ring finger, and thrust his hand straight forward, severing his vocal cords, windpipe, jugular, and even piercing the spinal cord. He retracted the curved needle and flung it once more, using his ridiculous training to loop the key ring. He pulled it up and unlocked the door, slipping out. He spotted an air vent and leapt up, grabbing the grate and pulling it off. It hit the floor with a clang, alerting the guards further down the hall. They came running over in time to see a foot wrapped up in cloth pull into the vent, leaving the scene of the murder of three innocents.

"... fuck." one of the guards muttered, promptly smashing the alarm button on his scroll.

…..

Ironwood strode through the halls towards his office with determined purpose. The report he had received from the guards was grim. Two guards and one doctor, murdered in a fairly brutal fashion to boot. The stories of Shiwu were seeming to be no mere fiction. He pushed a few buttons, only to groan when he received the message that Ozpin had arrived with some… unexpected guests. Things were not going that well. He slammed onto one of the numbers he had on speed dial. He held his scroll up. The instant he heard the other line pick up, he stopped.

"SCHNEE!"

"Yes sir!"

"I need you to go and contain this threat. Take as many soldiers as you can! Do not underestimate this man. If his compatriots were not lying, there will be many casualties no matter what we do. Keep it at a minimum please. Understood?"

"Understood sir. Anything you think I should know?"

"Do not allow your soldiers to split up at all. Now go. Seize him, and for Oum's sake, do not let him get to my office. Ozpin is there… with your sister's team, for some reason. I hope that is enough incentive to stop him."

A sound of a throat clearing was heard from the other side of the line. "Understood sir."

The line went dead and Ironwood rubbed his head. This was… not how he wanted this day to go.

…

Winter Schnee marched down the hallway of the base followed by thirty soldiers. She had not been pleased to hear about her sister being here as this problem was occurring, so she knew that this man… Shiwu, had to be stopped. She had already lost two men to him, and did not wish to lose any more. Ironwood wanted this man to be detained, not with lethal force. This would make her job more difficult. A beep from her scroll alerted her to the fact that a small cluster of four soldiers on guard up ahead had just had their auras dropped to zero, and she could only assume that it was the work of this assassin. Her pace quickened as her impassive face contorted into a determined frown. She mentally counted. Seven now. Seven casualties, and that was only the known ones. She drew her sword and strode faster and faster until she and her soldiers were sprinting down the hall. They soon came across a busted vent, several broken lights, and four dead guards underneath it. Each guard had a single puncture wound on their neck, right in the back. It was easy to tell that the spinal cord had been broken, but the confusing part was the air bubble that slowly was letting out through the tiny wound. Winter clutched her fist and looked back up at the busted vent. A glyph opened up behind her and a small flock of tiny, glowing Nevermores flew up into the vents, flying quickly down the echoey metal tunnel.

Shiwu, meanwhile, was not pleased. The first guard had dropped instantly, but the rest of them were a bit more difficult. He had to break the lights and forcibly stab the needle into their necks. It was almost as if they had a forcefield that went up when their guard was up. He had absolutely no explanation for that, but it was something he was able to bypass with a little extra force given to him from some mysterious tingling feeling that he had. Right before he would thrust the needle forward, a feeling like millipedes crawling over him came over him. Then he would stab, meet resistance for a fraction of a second, then pierce on through the neck. For some reason, these people were not nearly well prepared enough to deal with recapturing him. He figured that if they had caught him once, they should at least be able to succeed a second time. Then he tilted his head, listening as he kept moving. Due to his training, he was able to crawl through the vents without making a sound, something very hard to do. However, a sound was present. A sound not dissimilar to a flock of birds…

He looked behind him.

"... _Wángbā dàn…._ " he muttered.

What seemed like a glowing flock of armored birds were streaking towards him through the vents. Now, he wasn't one to put a lot of faith into what he saw, but seeing as he had built up immunity to just about every single hallucinogen out there, he figured what he was seeing had to be real. His paranoia really had no bounds, so it was rather hard to find any poisons or other things Shiwu was not immune to. Seriously, the man refused to get any unopened drinks from anyone, even if the bartender was the one to open it right in front of him. Realizing that the birds had wicked sharp beaks and were gaining rapidly on him, he looked and saw a grate just a foot or two ahead of him. He leapt forward and smashed open the grate, spilling out into an odd room. The flock of birds flew through the hole and dove at him. Looking around the room, he noted the fact that it was a rather massive, almost warehouse-like room. High shelves ran throughout with various weaponry sitting on them, and at the far end, there seemed to be large walker mechs. He swore as the birds relentlessly pursued him. Figuring that he would need to find some way to destroy them before they could destroy him, he pulled out a short knife that he had pulled from one of the guards he had murdered earlier. He held it in a reverse grip, waiting for the birds to swoop down at him again. When they started circling him at a blazing speed, he growled. He watched closely, starting to swing here and there, expertly slicing wings off of the birds as he avoided their strikes. Soon only two birds were left and were dispatched with no small amount of prejudice.

" _Xuèxīng de gēzi_ …" he growled, turning quickly when he heard the door beginning to open. He scrambled up the shelf closest to him, quickly beginning to dispatch the lightbulbs in the light fixtures. He had no idea who had sent those birds or how many people were pursuing him, but he needed every advantage he could get.

…

Ironwood was not happy. Currently, he was standing in his office in front of the much larger entourage than he expected. Qrow was not exactly wanted, but his appearance wasn't unwarranted. It was a huge deal that these people were making, so naturally Qrow would have wanted to get involved. However, it was the unexpected arrival of team RWBY that he definitely did not appreciate.

"Ozpin, why did you decide to bring team RWBY along with you? Qrow I can understand, but them? You do realize how big of a threat these people can pose? I can imagine the last thing you want to do is endanger your students. As it stands, one of these people have awoken incredibly hostile, and have killed seven people in a terrifyingly efficient way. Not only that, but it seems as if he can bypass aura! So tell me, why had you wanted to bring these girls along?"

"This person is a lone example. There is little doubt in my mind that the rest will wake up more peacefully. Also, if they are to be believed about their age reversal, then perhaps interacting with these four can bring them to a point where they can behave as much like average teenagers as they can. As of now, the rest of the world is unaware of their presence, so we should probably give them as best a shot of blending in with the population of a new more peaceful world. What information on the people have you received?"

As Ironwood debriefed Ozpin on all of the information, from the peculiar aura results to the explanation of earth and the brutal violence within, Team RWBY was talking amongst itself in hushed tones.

"So uhh… What do you guys think of all this?" Yang started off.

"Well, it's incredibly exciting! They are people from another world! They fought off a literal storm of grimm, surviving in the forsaken lands for hours! Completely unprepared! Ooh! I wonder what weapons they all have?" This was obviously the voice of the excitable team leader Ruby, who was overcome with childlike wonder with the whole situation.

Blake was again, quite obviously more hesitant. "I don't know about this… You heard what the general said. One of the men has already killed seven Atlas personnel, and I doubt that he is fully healed from his incident out in the forsaken lands. That's honestly kind of terrifying. I'm not entirely sure we should be here, or that we should trust these other-worlders…"

Weiss meanwhile, was distracted. "Excuse me, General sir?"

"Yes Ms. Schnee?"

"Do you know where Winter is?"

The other girls got quiet and looked over. "Winter?"

"Yes winter. My sister." She said, turning back to the general.

"Yes. Specialist Schnee is currently engaging Shiwu, the awakened assassin."

"WHAT?!"

….

Winter was wary as the door to the weapon storage room opened up and no lights were turning on. Already, she knew that this man was a skilled assassin, so the dark was probably not going to affect him too much. She had her men turn on the aura sensing goggles. If her sources were to be believed, then the man had his aura awakened, and there was no way he could be able to hide his aura. The men fanned out into an arc, the laser sights on their guns beaming out through the darkness.

Shiwu was up close to the top of the room, hiding in the rafters. He was naturally acclimated to the dark, having trained in the dark for a long time, and of course, the night was the most common times for assassinations. So in short, he was fully prepared to do this. He took the electrical wires he had pulled from the lights and wrapped an improvised rope around his ankle and held two knives in reverse grips. In the brief times he had to use it, he slowly adapted to having that little mental tingle so he could bypass these force fields everybody had. Focusing until he felt the tell tale creeping sensation of millipedes across his skin, he opened his eyes. He braced and jumped backwards, using the rope like a pendulum as he swung down in an arc. He passed silently down through the air and swung down an aisle.

The thing about not knowing what nuclear radiation did to auras is just that. Everything is unknown. So when it was recorded that his aura was invisible, the higher ups should have realized that this could potentially mean that certain equipments would not work. Such as these prototype Aura Sensing Goggles, ASGs, being unable to pick up Shiwu's aura. It was completely unexpected, which means that the soldiers had no idea what was coming, until a semblance enhanced knife slashed through the back of their necks. The deadly arc had swung down and slashed through the necks of seven soldiers in a row. When he reached the top of the swing, he slashed the cords holding his ankle and gracefully grabbed the next rafter. He crouched down again and paused to see the reaction. _Well, that's fourteen total killed. I'm pretty sure I have their attention now._ Shiwu thought to himself.

Winter Schnee was an interesting combination of livid with rage and mortally terrified. Seven of her men had just dropped instantly, and no one had even caught a glimpse of their quarry. She had 23 soldiers left now. They needed to change tactics. "Men! Swap to infrared vision. It's apparent we can't see his aura for some ridiculous reason." She pushed the button for her own goggles and watched as all of her men instantly looked up to the rafter where Shiwu was. She could see him now, this small, unassuming figure, holding two triangles of cold metal with something warm dripping off the tips. No real stretch of the imagination as to what that stuff was. Now that she could see him, she had lost much of her fear, replacing it with anger. "FIRE!"

Shiwu swore as he jumped behind one of the armored crates in the room. He was not a fan of infrared vision. Now he kinda regretted not taking Three's offer to surgically make him cold-blooded. He chuckled. That insane freak of intellectual nature…. He hoped he was alright. Now he just needed the easiest way to conceal himself from infrared vision. He scanned the room, spotting the mechs from earlier. He quickly started running towards them. He had no idea of how to drive a mech, that was more the tank bearing five's specialty. _However_ , he thought, _how hard can it be?_ He dodged from cover to cover as he made his way to the mechs. The more he thought about it, there was an easier way than driving such a mech. He opened the crate he hid behind. Guns. Nope. Next one. Ammo? Nope. Ok, maybe the next. His grin widened, feeling the familiar feeling of a cylinder with a pin. Upon close inspection, he saw a symbol of a lightning bolt on some with fire on others. Well, no time like the present to figure out what these did. He grabbed the pins of three simultaneously. He lobbed them over from his cover straight into the middle of the aisle in front of the soldiers. They had all grouped up after sighting their quarry, thinking it would be rather easy to take care of. So none of them expected the sudden three projectiles coming towards them, nor were they ready for the massive ball of fire and lightning that erupted outwards. The force was overwhelming for those closest to the blast, depleting their auras immediately. The rest of the soldiers were blinded by the intense surge of heat in front of them. The intense white that the level of heat produced when viewed through infrared had filled up their vision, completely blinding them.

Shiwu was completely caught off guard by this sudden eruption of elements, put decided to put it to use. He began lobbing grenade after grenade at them, keeping up a continuous blinding barrage in front of them. Once he determined that they were blinded enough, he rushed forward again with his knives. He almost laughed as he slashed throats and plunged knives into backs. Who did these people think they are? This was not how any military should be trained. By the time the remaining alive soldiers had been able to see him, he had closed to close quarter combat range. The soldiers quickly attempted to switch their weapons to their sword forms, but by that time, Shiwu had felled three more. But now it was time for the first real resistance Shiwu had met.

The first soldier swung his sword in an overhand, one handed grasp. Shiwu barely avoided it on purpose, and as the man stumbled past him, he slashed one of his knives across his side before spinning the other knife to a forwards grip and whirling around, driving the knife straight through the soldier's chin, piercing his brain. The second one charged him alongside a third, both of them swinging with a little more restraint, having seen the easy dispatchment of their comrade. He returned the one knife back to a reverse grip, parrying the two strikes with the shorter blades he wielded. He slightly redirected the momentum of the blades so that the men's arms crossed. In that instant, he plunged his blade straight down so that their arms were impaled to one another. The two men screamed at the sudden pain. Shiwu leapt up and kicked into a straddle-split, kicking both men in the face in opposite directions as he held the knife steady, splitting their arms from the middle of their forearms to their fingertips messily in half. He quickly spun his two knife blades within his grasp to fling them both into the heads of the men. He reached into his dressing gown and pulled out the remaining two knifes he had taken, in time to cross his blades in an X pattern to block an incoming swipe from the next grunt to step forward. This one seemed to be more veteran than the others, and assaulted Shiwu with a complex set of perfectly executed strikes. Shiwu stepped back repeatedly, ignoring the pain shooting up his leg. The bandages around his thigh had begun to unravel, meaning the bone was grinding a bit more than it should. He gritted his teeth, knowing that he had to end this whole spat soon or else he would undoubtedly lose. He launched his own flurry of strikes at the man, surprising him with the sheer ferocity and strength coming from the tiny man with a broken leg. He began to sweat as he recognised that every single strike was aimed to kill. Eventually, Shiwu broke through. With a slight tilt of his knife blade, his strike slid down the blade, causing the man to flinch slightly, from the lack of force he had been expecting. That flinch was all it took for shiwu to quickly twist his knife around and pry the sword from the man's grasp, flinging it across the aisle. He swiped forward with his knife, and just when it was about to slash the man's jugular open, a silver rapier flashed forward, blocking the strike. Shiwu swore. The leader had finally engaged.

Winter was so far beyond livid, she was pissed off. This man had woken up and immediately started killing without even a chance for Atlas to explain themselves. Not only that, but it was done with such a level of gruesome efficiency that her soldiers had not been prepared for. She had been staring straight when the grenades went off, causing her to be as badly blinded as the rest. By the time she was able to see regularly, she had witnessed the gruesome incident with her two soldiers that charged together. When she saw the last conscious member of her squad about to lose his life, she knew she had to stop this rampaging monster. She leapt forward with the aid of her glyphs, stopping in time to save the man's life. As the soldier retreated at her order, she pushed Shiwu further away from her. The two stood looking at each other warily.

"Why are you doing this?" Winter demanded.

Shiwu growled. "Gee. Lets see. I woke up in a place I did not fall asleep in. In my line of work, that is a very bad thing. In previous experiences, bad things always come out of that situation. Namely, questioning and torture. So why should I have stayed where I was?" He was humoring her and he knew that the longer this conversation went on, the more dangerous the situation became for him. He charged at Winter, delivering an expert set of strikes, which she easily dodged backwards from.

"That is no reason to continuously slaughter my men! Haven't you considered the possibility that we had helped you guys and saved your life?" Winter shouted, even more frustrated.

"Your men? Awfully greedy. I shudder to imagine the wedding reception bills" he smirked. If there was one thing those scots in the brute squad had given him, it was an appreciation for sarcastic one liners. It was a good way to make your opponent more enraged and easy to predict. Boy was he correct.

Winter was needless to say, quite infuriated. She yelled and lunged forward at an impressive speed, which Shiwu only managed to redirect at the last second. The minor correction to her course was enough to put the blindly enraged Schnee in harm's way, and he slashed at her side. Only to be surprised as she managed to avoid it, only receiving slightly torn clothing for her troubles. This alone told Shiwu that this was an incredibly high threat. He retreated back a short distance.

…..

The people in Ironwood's office were startled when a loud sound rang out from the General's scroll. Ironwood opened it up and his eyes widened, his face paling.

"What's wrong jimmy?" Qrow asked, trying to milk some drops from his flask.

"Well… twenty-nine of the thirty soldiers sent with Specialist Schnee have been completely incapacitated…" he stated quietly. Everyone had various reactions of shock at this. The four girls of RWBY all felt the color drain from their faces from hearing the news. This was insane. Goodwitch's eyes widened before becoming a glare aimed at Ozpin. Ozpin meanwhile, only raised an eyebrow to hear that number. Qrow started coughing in shock and almost ended up falling over. Their eyes all went to Ironwood. Weiss said what was on everyone's mind.

"Winter…"

…

In the darkened room, a lot had happened in the space of three minutes. The fierce sets of traded blows started becoming one-sided in Winter's favor as the bandage had completely fallen off of his leg. In a split second, everything changed. He leapt backwards and screamed as the bones suddenly shifted back out of alignment, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. He dropped his weapons and clutched his leg in pain as a portion of the bone stabbed through the flesh of his thigh. Winter stood over him, panting heavily. Shiwu looked up at her, defiance still bright in his eyes. He knew he should get up and keep fighting, but the rapier at his throat easily dissuaded any illusions he had of potential escape. He merely growled his frustration as she pulled a device from her pocket and put it up to her ear.

"General. I have the escapee captured. What are your orders?"

…..

Everyone in the office let out a tremendous sigh of relief to hear the news. Ironwood looked down at his scroll to see a new alert pop up. "Schnee, take Shiwu to room A113. It appears Leonidas has started coming to. Get him to give Shiwu the special code I was told he knows. Then bring that boy here to my office, making sure he is firmly restrained. I have some questions for the little bastard." The general growled out the last portion, his distaste for the murderer very very clear.

The girls of team RWBY all shared a glance at each other. This was it. They were going to meet a really dangerous man from another world. Who was apparently their age. How someone would willingly kill a total of 36 people in such a short time was unbelievable to them. While still excited to see him, it was more akin to how one would find the roman gladiator fights fun. A sense of gruesome delight at the impressively terrifying. Needless to say, they waited anxiously, Blake's ears twitching occasionally.

….

Winter walked along with Shiwu, the short man bound in cords tightly, only leaving the knees down unbound. This was entirely done for security precautions. The pair made their way down the halls to the room where Leonidas had woken up. Shiwu had been told that his leader had just woken up and needed to speak to him. That put him on edge a little bit upon hearing, but it was not like he could do anything about the situation. So he walked with this tall, slightly imposing white haired woman.

His opinions on this woman were varied. She had reacted way too easily to him taunting her, which could be dangerous against say, an opponent without a broken leg. As such, he widely regarded their fight as one that would have to be done again when his leg is healed. That was the only thing that he felt really contributed to his loss. Had he not been so tired and injured, he felt that this was a target he could eliminate without too much trouble. On the other hand, she was a high threat to anyone on her bad side, and he could only assume she was the one to summon those birds from earlier. That was another thing. This woman had some supernatural speeds. She should not have been able to traverse the distance needed to block his knife in time. That meant either the people at this base were not human, or she was a unique soldier.

Unknown to him, similar analysis of him was running through Winter's mind. She was honestly impressed with his improvised planning skills, and a bit amazed, though frustrated, at how efficiently he had wiped out her whole team. That was no simple task, seeing as it required a lot to take down professional Atlas soldiers. Also, he seemed to have near perfect vision at night, despite him evidently not being a faunus nor having any night vision gear like her squad had. The fact that their Aura scanners could not pick him up concerned her. There was a distinct report of having unlocked his aura, though it had been strangely peculiar. There had been no glow like usual, but there was a feeling like "a handful of millipedes" as the report stated. That seemed to be enough to let them know that while having been awakened, it was untraceable. She idly thought about what that would mean in context of an arena duel. Then there was the whole bypassing Aura thing. Shiwu seemed to have achieved his semblance and gotten the hang of it ridiculously fast. She knew that they had to keep an eye on him if he was not incarcerated for life as a result of his actions. Should his ability fall into the hands of the enemies, be they the white fang or something else entirely, he would instantly become the most dangerous man alive. She knew for a fact that her men had gone in with their auras up, yet they had fallen as quickly as those without. Obviously his semblance was aura negation, as the knives were completely standard issue. Then there was the matter of him appearing seventeen years old. Sure, she knew that he had apparently been older before he arrived, but that really did not change the image of a tiny teen the same age as her sister wiping out as many soldiers as he had. Oh well. This one needed an eye to be kept on him.

…..

Leonidas was groggy. He sat there in the hospital bed, rubbing the back of his neck. The man had been through a lot. It took a surprising amount of effort to fire his powerful railgun, and it was even harder to fight off three deathstalkers at once with his trusty machete. However, the doctors in the room with him had informed him that Shiwu had already woken up, escaped, killed a ton of people, and been recovered. He was currently on his way, which meant that Leo had to remember the incredibly complex code Shiwu had made him memorize to make sure that he was the true Leonidas. He felt a bit bad for Shiwu after what he had gone through in the past, so this was a small price to pay to keep him sane and safe. He was not looking forward to negotiating Shiwu's release from the authority figures in the building, knowing it was inevitable. No general, no matter how incompetent, appreciates when a squadron of his men are killed. So it was guaranteed that he would have to discuss the matter with the general… Ironwood. That was his name. He looked down at his smaller frame with slight distaste. Though it was obvious he had not lost any strength from his older body, it was going to be difficult to adapt to this new concept.

Adapting. That had always been a strength of his organisation, adapting to any inclement situations they were put into. So he guessed that they would have to deal with this one, despite it being much more difficult than anything they had been through before. Attempting to readapt to a brand new society while simultaneously getting used to a teenage body. Well, he shouldn't really be that surprised that they were the ones to get this bad luck. They have always had shitty runs, but they come out on top. It made him very proud of his men. He looked up to see Shiwu walk in bound shoulders to knees by electrical cords. It made him start to chuckle quietly, before cutting off after the evil glare he had received from Shiwu. He motioned to be alone with Shiwu for a bit. The white haired companion with Shiwu looked very hesitant to leave, but deemed it necessary. The rest of the staff quickly followed her out as Shiwu kinda hopped over with some difficulty. Leo quickly recited the long, complicated verse in chinese, causing Shiwu to instantly relax more. Then Leonidas glared at him with the legendary face. That face of disapproval that was famous among the Ticks for when someone did something wrong. Shiwu instantly knew he was in for an earful.

…

Winter had never heard such a stream of curses in english before. Or whatever those thirty other languages were. She was quietly impressed, and decided to save a few of them for later. What? She could swear at times, she didn't always have a stick up her ass. Yet as the verbal lashing wore on, she kinda started feeling bad for the guy. That is, until she remembered why he was receiving this oratory from hell. Then she smiled, satisfied that this leader was as displeased with the tiny chinese man as she was. After a while longer, there was silence. Then there was a quiet mumbled response from the small man. She looked through the window to see Leonidas giving the still restrained man a hug. The scene seemed like a familial spat instead of a scolding for a lot of murders. It brought a small smile to her face when she saw how close these two people were. However, it faded quickly when she found herself wishing that her family was as close as this group of teens. She stiffened and opened the door when she saw Leonidas untying him.

"What are you doing?" She demanded, storming in.

"Untying him. What does it look like?" He asked as the cords fell down.

Shiwu stepped back and turned to Winter. He bowed low, perfectly in half at the waist. "I am terribly sorry. I have had major issues in my past and panicked when I woke up with a needle in my arm in a bed that was certainly not where I fell unconscious. I know it does nothing to assuage the murders I committed, but I hope it can put some perspective on why I did it. I wish I can do something to make up for all the murders."

Winter really had no idea how to deal with this scenario. He seemed genuinely upset, but when she thought back to what he did, she growled. "We'll let the General decide." She spat out. She turned on her heel and motioned for Shiwu to follow. Giving one last look back at his leader, he took a deep breath and followed the taller woman.

…

Ironwood, Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda, and team RWBY stood in anticipation of Shiwu's arrival. They had received a message from Winter that said that Leonidas had removed the restraints and that Shiwu was not trying to kill anyone anymore. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as that news reached their ears. Needless to say, despite being in the presence of four of the best hunters and huntresses, team RWBY had felt very unsafe when they had heard about how many had died. But now they were just quietly ready for the person to arrive.

Ruby was putting on a brave face, but she was internally terrified. This otherworlder…. Had wiped the floor with a huge amount of trained Atlas professionals. She had not heard anything about what he looks like, this information conjured in her head tons of images of a massive, brutish blue skinned alien. Or maybe green. Obviously someone with tons of muscles, towering over everyone who dared challenge him. This image frightened her, but hearing that he was apparently calm relieved her a tiny bit.

Yang looked down with a bit of pity at her sister. She knew the look that Ruby got when she was frightened but trying to be brave. Seeing that now made her feel kinda bad about coming. She was kind of excited to meet this monstrous person who had defeated so many soldiers single handedly. She had heard that he was under control now, so that removed most of the worry she had about him. She had her usual cheerful attitude about the whole situation.

Blake meanwhile, was completely horrified. Thanks to her past, she was incredibly leery about someone able to change attitudes so quickly, especially after having an unsupervised conversation with their supposed leader. This could easily have been a setup to gain their trust more easily. Her eyes narrowed as her ears picked up faint footsteps coming down the hall.

Weiss was not worried about Shiwu at all. Her mind was entirely occupied with the state of her sister. Relations were a bit of a sore spot in the Schnee heiress's mind. Her family had always had a stressful time, no thanks to the interactions between her father and the White Fang. So needless to say, she was excited and nervous to see her sister again.

There came a knock at the door that pulled everyone out of their respective thoughts. They all looked over as Ironwood called out to enter. When the door opened and Shiwu stepped through, the thoughts that went through all of team RWBY's heads were exactly the same.

'THIS is who destroyed the soldiers?!'

 **.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

 **Well, another chapter done completed. I had no ideas where to cut this off, so I figured that this would be as good a spot as any.**

 **In regards to how the canon of the story is going to change, well, what do you possibly think? A group of highly skilled warriors from another world have arrived, and not a small one at that. There's no way in hell Cinder won't notice this. Likewise, there is no way in hell that they canon can continue in the manner which it does in the plot of RWBY. With so many new powerful players on the board now, the game is like a game of chess that suddenly had a ton of clear pieces dumped onto the board. No one (except me) knows where each one will go, but it will definitely impact any and all plots and plans that are made.**

 **I really really REALLY need y'all who read this to respond. I have no idea how well I am portraying these canon characters, so I want to hear your thoughts about it. Likewise, if any of you notice plot points that conflict with each other, (politely) point them out to me in reviews.**

 **Also, just little comments would be nice as well. Just me being selfish. Heheh.**

 **So yah!**


	3. UPDATE ON Chapter 3

**Greetings!**

 **I must say, thank you to someguy530! Thanks to you, I have decided to give this story a second shot! Thanks to your wonderful review, I gave this story a read through and have become inspired to keep it moving! I apologize that this update is not a new chapter, however, Chapter three is in the works! Hopefully it will be up to snuff!**

 **Sincerely,**

 **Os**


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